How Much Quantity of Ganache I need?

This question came to my mind a lot when I just started caking.

I did ask around I get answered like:

"If you make ganache from 2 x 900 ml of cream plus the chocolate,

it should be enough.  If not, just make more."

I appreciated it but not quite satisfying,

so I begin to write down the ganache quantity I used

everytime I ganached the cake.

So based on the above, I would like to share my experienced

to those who need it, hopefully it will be useful,

just remember: every cake decorator has different was of ganaching their cakes.

Below are mine and always enough for me to cover 2 cakes each to achieve 4" height for each cake:

For 6" round: you will need 300 ml of cream.

For 8" round: you will need 600 ml of cream.

For 10" round: you will need 900 ml of cream.

For 12" round: you will need 1,200 ml of cream.

The Cream: use liquid cream, not thickened cream.

For Semi-sweet or Dark Chocolate Ganache:

you will need 1 :2,

means: for 300 ml of cream, you will need 600 grams of chocolate.

For White Chocolate Ganache:

you will need 1 : 3,

means: for 300 ml of cream, you will need 900 grams of chocolate.

^^^ thanks for looking ^^^

Mie Ayam Nicolas

Not far from Mum's house at home, there is a noodle seller, they sell it from home and we call it Mie Ayam Nicolas.

Mie means noodle, Ayam means chicken and Nicolas is the name of their son.

Mostly during weekends we would order by phone, the wife/husband will take the order, and the husband will deliver the order to us, o yeah a good service door-to-door.  Until lately I heard from Mum and from my Niece that they don't sell Mie Ayam anymore.  They were disappointed.

I have been living here for almost 5 years and it was just since last year that I know there is an asian grocery about almost 1.5 hour away from where we live last year.  Lucky we moved to a big city and now it is only about 45 minutes to 1 hour distance to AKK (DANSY) PTY LTD, 643 Hunter Street, Newcastle, NSW.

But then I found another asian grocery near Greenhills Maitland called SUN SUPERMARKET, Shop 11/4A Garnett Road, East Maitland, NSW 2323.  I like this shop not only because it is closer to home but the owner is VERY friendly.  I must say that AKK has more varities but so far I can find all that I need in SUN SUPERMARKET, no complaint at all.

So back to Mie Ayam Nicolas, I bought this fresh egg noodles, this time I bought it from SUN SUPERMARKET.  I bought and made this Mie Ayam Nicolas before but I bought the fresh egg noodles from AKK.  Well they are the same.  Happy to see SUN SUPERMARKET has this type of noodle too.

Mum gave me the recipe on roughly how to make a similar noodle dish that taste like Mie Ayam Nicolas.  So here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast, small cubed

1 spring onion, finely sliced

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

about 1 litre of water

1 bunch of choy sum, washed, chopped

1/2 package of bean sprouts

1 tbsp MASSELS chicken stock powder

salt and pepper, to taste

1 tbsp of oyster sauce

1 tbsp of light soy sauce

1 tbsp of fish sauce

1 egg

RICE BRAN vegetable oil.

Method:

Put chicken, garlic, salt and pepper into a bowl.
Mixed and marinate for half an hour.

Heat pan over medium heat,

add chicken mixture and saute.

In the meantime, heat 1 litre of water,

add garlic chips and MASSELS.

Bring to boil.

 Once the chicken almost cooked, add a ladle of MASSELS stock into it,

and continue cooking until chicken are fully cooked.

In that way the chicken will still tender, not dried out.

 In another sauce pan, prepare water just enough

to boil the fresh egg noodles. Add a touch of salt if you like.

Then Bring to boil.

 Add fresh egg noodles, cooked for half a minute

(as the package says). Drained.

 In the other pan, once the MASSELS stock is boiling,

add choy sum and bean sprouts.

 Mixed and cooked briefly.

 Prepare serving bowls.

Add 1 tbsp of RICE BRAN vegetable oil,

sauces and ground white pepper.

I don't like mine with raw egg, but my husband does.

So just add a raw egg at this stage, if you like.

Then add drained noodle, boiled vegetables

with a little of the MASSELS stocks in it.

If you like it a bit soupy, you might want to add more sauces to bring out the flavor so it won't be tasteless.

Add cooked chicken,

then sprinkle garlic chips on it.

Add finely chopped spring onion too.

Mine was the same as above

but without egg and I add finely chopped of 3 bird-eye chilis.

This is also Mie Ayam Nicolas,

I made this some time ago with bok choy,

I add sambal oelek into it.

Thanks for looking (^_^)

Delima Restaurant, Indonesian Cuisine at Chinatown Sydney, Australia

Just after Christmas last year we had a trip to Sydney... Chinatown again... was planning to go to one of Indonesian restaurant at Essex St. just by foot from Haymarket but we got lost :D

On the way there we passed Delima Restaurant at Dixon Street, then Pinangsia Noodle House and next to it is Cafe Joy, both at Quay Street.  I was 20 weeks pregnant and was quite hungry when we were in front of Cafe Joy and said to my husband that I don't mind to eat at Cafe Joy.  It was about 1pm, I told my husband I could "eat a horse"!  He was laughing.

He said we better go back to Delima Restaurant, so we went back.

Once we arrived there, we took steps up and greeted with a little pond of koi fishes which my son loves and hanging around the pond.  In front of it is an aquarium with (I think) barramundi fishes in it.  

We waited for awhile, not very long, seems like a group of people is leaving the restaurant.  Once they left one of the waiter who is very smiley and friendly greeted us and lead us to our seats.  It has a la carte and banquet menus.  I was so excited, it was my first time in a proper Indonesian restaurant, normally we only go to food court which is quite good too but the food is always the same. 

We got free entree which is prawn chips with sambal and sweet soy sauce.

Then for starter I chose otak-otak which is Indonesian grilled fish cake wrapped in banana leaves with peanut sauce.

Otak-otak $13.95

Honestly it was not as good I imagined it would be,

a bit tasteless, maybe I should have ordered Tahu Kipas instead. 

Ayam Panggang Kalasan $18.94

Beef Rendang $18.94

Cah Kangkung Terasi $17.94

Those were our mains they came with a bucket of rice.

Beef rendang was exactly what I am looking for,

rich, flavorsome, not too spicy, and the meat is so tender.

I would order this again if we go back.

Ayam Panggang Kalasan is Indonesian grilled chicken using soy sauce and some spice.

It's not spicy at all so my son can eat it, but the chicken is very small.

We believe it's a baby chicken .. LOL...

Cah Kangkung Terasi is Asian Watercress / Morning Glory stir-fry with a little bit of prawns and shrimp paste (terasi).  Not bad but for that price, the portion is way too small.  Look at the price compare to beef rendang and ayam panggang kalasan, only $1 different.  

My old time favorite: Ice Lemon Tea!!

Was sooo good, coz it was a hot day!

Es Campur $8.95

This was ordered for my husband and he loved it!

Durian Pancake $11.95 was mine

My husband tried it but he didn't mind it,

but he prefers Es Campur.

I love it, so creamy and yummy... I would order this again :)

For 2 adult and a 3 year-old, we paid $108.-

which I think quite expensive but hey! it's a restaurant

not food court!  And overall I still love the food.

Next time won't order vegetable course, just meat & desserts! LOL..

 thanks for looking ;)

Christmas 2012 Cooking and Baking

I haven't post anything for awhile.

It's a bit late, better late than never :)

  

Have been very busy with household and my cakes.

Here are some photos from our Christmas 2012 - mainly my baking and cooking.

 Plain cheesecake

 Jamie Oliver's Homemade ice cream, vanilla & chocolate.

The chocolate one was a hit!

The vanilla one was not so good.

 Kiwi and pineapple salsa

 Raspberries and Passionfruit pulps cheesecake

Blueberries cheesecake

 Steamed pudding in round shape,

my MIL's recipe, so simple and sooooo goooooddd!!

 Nigella Lawson's Guinness Gingerbread... YUM!!

 Mixed salad with green grapes

 Yoghurt and avocado salad dressing

so light, yummy & still creamy!!

 Apple crumble,,, i think i need to put more apples!

 Fresh pickles for Martabak Asin (below)

Indonesian Martabak Asin, this one with Veal & Pork

... thanks for looking :)  ....