Making your own popcorn

Popcorn is a must when I go to the movies. Not like I can finish the whole box myself, even when I buy the smallest size. Usually I go for the mixture of sweet and salty. When I saw this at the supermarket, I couldn’t resist. Why buy expensive popcorn when I can do it at home? I drizzled my popcorn with the honey I bought in Sydney earlier and they tasted wonderful.

Honey popcorn
90g corn
100ml vegetable oil
4 tbsp honey
 
1. Heat up the oil over low flame in a medium sized pot with a lid.

2. Add the corn and cover the pot. The corn will start popping after about 4 minutes.

3. Hold up the pot, with the lid on, shake it over the flame. Rotate every now and then to ensure that the heat gets distributed evenly. It takes about 15 minutes to pop all the corn.

4. Pour all the popcorn into a bowl. Drizzle with honey and mix thoroughly before serving. Makes one big bowl.

Making your own soft boiled eggs

Everybody have their own favourite type of way to eat their eggs. On top of sunny side ups and soft boiled eggs, I love century eggs and salted eggsas well. The latter two may be a little foreign to you peeps living in the western countries, but they are really common here and absolutely delicious (though century eggs are a little scary looking). Recently. I have a craving for soft boiled eggs and proceeded to make my own for breakfast since I am really free and have yet to start work at my new place. The eggs I used are the pale colored ones as show above. Mom says that they are free range eggs and have a higher nutrition as compared to the brown commercially produced ones. The pale colored eggs have a much yellower yolk (almost to the point of orange) the brown  ones and have a richer taste too. Yum. I can eat half a dozen at a go if I don’t have to worry about cholesterol! The first time round I tried cooking, they were a little unevenly cooked, probably because I did not add enough water to cover the whole egg. I am glad to say I got it just right this time. After adding a dash of light soy and a sprinkle of white pepper, who says that simplicity aren’t the best stuff?

Soft boiled eggs

2 eggs (room temperature)
Pot of water (enough to cover the eggs)
Bowl of iced water

1. Put the pot of water on low heat until barely simmering.

2. Add the eggs and set a timer. After about 3 minutes, turn off the heat and cover the pot. Let the eggs cook for another 2 minutes.

3. Transfer the eggs to the bowl of iced water so that it will stop the cooking process. Serve after cooling as desired.

Making your own ganache

Ganaches are wonderfully versatile. To drizzle as a sauce, heat it up slightly. To use it to frost a cake, let the ganache cool and thicken. Use it as a glaze for cupcakes, eclairs and cookies to make them extra decadent. If you use a dark chocolate with high percentage of cacao, you will need at least an extra half cup of cream. Add more (1 tablespoon at a time) if necessary.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

(Adapted from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet)

 

12 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (up to 60% cacao), finely chopped

1 ½ cups (12oz) heavy whipping cream

 

1.       Place the chocolate in the medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until it begins to boil.

 

2.       Immediately pour the cream over the chocolate. Let the mixture sit for 1 minute, then gently whisk until the ganache is completely smooth. If you are using a high-percentage chocolate and the mixture looks broken or curdled at this point in time, stir in an extra tablespoon or 2 of cream, just until the mixture smoothes out again. Use as directed.