Cheats and Eats

Started the weekend cheating! Had a late dinner at Caramel Restaurant & Lounge, shared a bottle of rose and visited Vu's at Emirates Towers for a night cap of margarita and mellow bubbles?.

Lobster Mash, Shell Fish Bisque, Chive Butter

(love, love love this mash!!! I made sure I got every little bit of lobster)

  Pan Seared Lamb Loin with Vert De Puys and Lamb jus (for him)

 Seared Chilean Seabass, Rock Shrimp Risotto, Lobster Broth, Tomato Basil Tapenade (for moi)

(I was in heaven devouring this fish.)

*Above photos are from their facebook page, was famished and we attacked our food as soon as it came to our table. What you see in the photos is exactly what you're gonna get :D*

Great food. Great conversation. Great Price.

 My best friend cheated big time with few sticks of cigs :-( he threw the rest in the morning :-) We vowed not to go out and drink next weekend :D He has to control his need for smoking when drinking.

Restaurants we want to visit soon, Picante and Sobahn.

SugarLuxe Dubai

Been so busy the past few weeks spending a lot of time in the kitchen baking, decorating and running around doing errands. 

Going to hand paint a dummy cake and dummy cupcakes this weekend.

hand painted fondant trial

Strawberry Pavlova

This is always a hit at home, A very simple pleasure...meringue, whipped cream and strawberry.

Clementine

Spanglish Sandwich

BLT sandwich from the movie Spanglish. Layers of mayo, bacon, egg, butter lettuce and cheddar cheese.  

Roast Duck

I am currently roasting a chicken as I'm posting this and can't wait to stuff my face with it. It has been marinating for four days, cos I was waiting to crave for it

Macaron Testing

Finally gave in and made macarons. Finding a reliable macaron recipe is like finding a needle in a haystack. The first batch (rose flavored macarons) I made turned out hollow and not so pretty, so I turned them into a macaron cone and discarded the recipe. The second (chocolate with coffee buttercream filling) was chewy and fell flat on top, I'm guessing I didn't rap the tray hard enough. But the third (mango with chocolate buttercream filling) and fourth (raspberry with raspberry filling) turned out just ok, they're the same basic recipe.

Yes they all have feet. They all have egg shell like domed top. But the insides aren't soft and therefore doesn't melt in the mouth the way macarons should. I'm still under the process of making them almost perfect.

Homemade Pizza

I have finally made my own pizza!!! Thanks to Laura Vitale's quick and easy instructions. I found her videos on youtube recently and I like how she present her dishes, no pretenses and just direct to the point. Unlike some other famous chefs that are sharing their recipes online; you follow the instructions and all but the end result isn't good, then you end up wondering if they're holding back some info.

I went for her no-cook sauce recipe, but my toppings were mainly pork. First time ever to have Pork Pizza in Dubai!

She suggested using a pizza stone, I didn't what to make it before I get myself a pizza stone, but what the heck. I baked it in a baking paper and the crust turned out golden and crispy, so I don't think it's necessary, but I would still buy one (just cos I think it's fancy :D) especially a pizza peel, because it would be easier transferring your pizza to your oven using one.

Homemade Pizza

Mini Burgers with Aubergines

Quick, easy and yummy yummy dinner...i love fresh home made burgers...

Pork Menudo and Mash

Menudo. It's got to be my favourite dish, not the Mexican version but the Filipino one. 

This menudo is somewhat different. No red hotdogs, liver and peas. Tomato and sugar is also non-existent. I have to try to please some little and big people. This was so easy and so tasty, from now on I think this is gonna be one of my go to lazy dinners. 

Tres Leche's Cake

I couldn't stop thinking about this when I saw Laura's video on youtube, I just had to make it. I didn't have cherries so I used Thorntons vanilla fudge for toppings.

Vanilla Sponge Cupcake & Creamy Vanilla Frosting

Easy peasy fluffy spongy cupcakes and creamy frosting. This frosting is also a great base for adding different flavours. I used this with dulce de leche, nutella and peanut butter.

Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cake

I got Catwalk Cow cupcake mix from Spinneys out of curiosity because I was getting kind of tired with Betty Crocker mixes, and not because it says low fat. I'm so glad I did because these were the yummiest chocolate cupcakes I have ever made!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Filling and Frosting

 

Crunchy Batter Fried Fish (No Beer)

Ta da! 

FISH!

I'm not really a big fan of cooking fish, especially fried. But we got cod fillets thinking we can make a batter and deep fry. Yeah!

Crème Pâtissière & Pâte à Choux

Been wondering what else I can do with flour, eggs, butter and milk. Read somewhere online that pastries and whoopie pies are the next best things after cupcakes and macarons. though I'm not really sure I agree. I don't really fancy the sound of whoopie pies...but I don't know, maybe I will make them someday, on the other hand, pastry puffs...eclairs...yumm!

Mini Corn Dogs

I don't own a hotdog waffle maker so this is as close as I can get to my favourite snack back home, waffle dogs. I used tender juicy red hotdogs, and yes...they're made of pork.

Comfort. Food.

Sweet, Sour and Hot Chicken with Fried Quinoa

Instead of preparing the usual steamed rice to go with sweet and sour chicken, I opted for a better alternative and high in fibre (as per the package)...quinoa. I fried it like I normally would rice. Now, I love my rice more than anything else, but the lightness of quinoa complimented the hot and saucy chicken very well. 

Baked Raspberry Custard

I got fresh raspberries from the grocery knowing I want to make something out of them, I just didn't know what.