Cream of Roasted Mushroom Soup

Assalamualaikum!

Phew.Submitted my super long oh-my-goodness-gracious-me review paper. If I get into grad school, I might probably have to write similar reviews all the time..=.=’

Anyhoots, I bought some mushrooms and didn't really know what to do with it. I was thinking of making pasta but doesn't really feel like making pasta..It’s getting really cold now. The negative temperature is slowly kicking in..What’s better than having a bowl of soup in this weather? So yeap. I decided to make some soup. Cream of roasted mushrooms because cream of mushroom is too mainstream.=P

I rarely buy porcini mushroom, but let me tell ya, I went out and got more. There are some wooden and earthy flavors to it that makes any dish tastes classic. It’s that good! If you are wondering, porcini mushrooms are the brown “version” of button mushrooms. When I first tasted this soup,I was like..”Oh yeah! Mummy would love it!”.You'd love it too!

Cream of Roasted Mushrooms

8 oz of mushrooms/1 packet

½ cup of cooking cream

2 cups of water

1 cube of beef stock

4 tablespoons of olive oil

3 tablespoons of butter

1 ½ tablespoon of flour

1 tablespoons of dried parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit
2. Chop mushroom into thinner slices/pieces
3. In an oven-safe bowl, coat the mushrooms with olive oil. Season it with salt and pepper.
4. Bake for 20 -25 minutes or until cooked through.
5. Once the mushroom is cooked, set aside. Do not drain the mushrooms!
6. In a saucepan on a medium heat, melt butter and add the flour. Stir for 30 seconds-1 minute.
7. Add cream, water, beef stock, roasted mushrooms along with the liquid that is collected in the oven-safe bowl.
8. Stir constantly and let simmer. Once it simmers, turn off the heat and let cool for 15 minutes -20 minutes
9. Pour ¾ of the soup in a blender and blend well.
10. Pour the well blended soup back in the saucepan.
11. Season with salt, pepper and parsley. Again, let simmer.

Porcini Mushrooms

Before

After

When we bake the mushrooms, it’ll emit some juice that is very flavorful. Adding that to your soup would give you extra points. I kid you not.

Serve this soup with some toasted bread. Yuh-mie!

(Pardon the pictures.I was hungry and I had a paper to write)

Take care.Remember to breathe..

In life, take one thing at a time. I sure have to remind myself that!

Wasalam.

Love,

Sofhan Hasni

Mushroom Quiche

Assalamualaikum!

Whenever I fast, I always make sure that my iftar is something delicious. I was about to say feast, but we all know I feast on food every single day of the week. Ahah.

I wanted to fast today but tettt, I didn't wake up for sahur. Yeay. Not.

Last time I fasted, I made myself some mushroom quiche. Oh my Lord. It’s incredibly delicious.=O

Mushroom Quiche

3 large eggs

1 cup of mozzarella, shredded

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 large onion, chopped

1/4 cup of bell pepper, chopped

6 ounces button mushroom, chopped

1/3 cup milk

1/3 cup cream

Salt and pepper (to taste)

9 inch-pie crust

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
2. Cover the pie crust with parchment paper and fill it in with baking weights. (I used rice c=grains)
3. Bake for 15 minutes.  Take it out of the oven and remove the parchment paper along with the grains.
4. Poke some holes on the pie crust using a fork. Bake for another 10 minutes or until the pie crust is golden brown. Set aside.
5. In a large skillet, drizzle olive oil and caramelize the mushroom, onion and bell pepper (About 5 minutes). Season with salt and pepper. Set aside
6. In a bowl, mix the eggs with the milk and cream. Season with salt and pepper.
7. In the pie crust, sprinkle half cup of the cheese at the bottom of the crust. Spread the cooked mushroom, onion and bell pepper on top of the cheese. Top with the remaining cheese.
8. Slowly, pour in the egg mixture.
9. Place the pie pan on a cookie sheet in case of over pouring. Bake for 30 -35 minutes.

  

I used ½ cup milk, ½ cup cream. My mixture was over flowing!!!ayayay! Hence the reduced measurement.=)

  

Original recipe from: here

Okay, back to printing studies. I’ll be writing about the effects of marriage conflicts on children. Sigh. Poor kids.=/ On the bright side Nasi Lemak for breakfast andddd there will be a talk on Psych degree later on! I really need to start my research on grad schools. Yes kids, I’ll be a nerd for a LONNNNGGGGGG time.

Oh yes, my sister is MARRIED! Alhamdulillah! Everyone is all grown up...and saving China.

Guess who is next in the line? *wink*

Take care.

Wasalam.

Till then,

Love,

Sofhan Hasni 

Roast Chicken with Potatoes

Assalaamualaikum!

What do you know?!Third post for the day. It is my day off..so…I blogged and of course, pigged out. I really did.

I am a BIG fan of Laura Vitale. I came across her Roast Chicken video and boom..I just had to try making one for myself. I really do. I wanted to make it for yesterday’s potluck but I had a crazy day and my freezer weren’t cooperating with me. So I decided to make one today. YEAY! I’ve always wanted to try roasting a turkey or chicken with fillings but where can I get a Halal turkey? Plus, I never roasted whole chickens ever in my life. EVER! But Alhamdulillah, today’s experiment was a success. Kudos to Laura’s recipe. The chicken was well cooked, tender, juicy, delicious, flavorful…EVERY INCH OF IT WAS DELICIOUS! The buttery taste compliments the tanginess of the lemon. The rosemary and garlic…need I say more?!

Original Recipe: here

Roast Chicken with Potatoes

Roast Chicken:

1 whole chicken (1.5kg)

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons of dried rosemary

1 large onion

3 cloves of unpeeled garlic

1 lemon

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

For potatoes:

2 tablespoons of dried rosemary

3 cloves of unpeeled garlic

3 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit
2. For the potatoes, in a roasting pan (I used 9x9 baking pan), drizzle the olive oil.
3. Cut potatoes into 1 inch cubes and add the potatoes into the pan
4. Also add in the dried rosemary, salt and pepper.
5. Mix them well and push them to the sides of the pan to make way for the chicken
6. Slice the onion into 4 big slices and arrange them in the middle of the pan. Set aside.
7. For the chicken, in a bowl, mix the butter, rosemary, salt and pepper together.
8. With the chicken (both drumstick) facing you, slowly make your way through the skin at the top of the chicken to create a small “pocket”,
9. Fill this “pocket”with  ¾ of your butter mixture and slather the rest on top of the chicken.
10. Cut the lemon in half and insert it in the cavity of the chicken along with the garlic.
11. Tie the drumsticks together using a kitchen string
12. Place the chicken on top of the arranged onion slices.
13. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt (especially) and some pepper on the chicken.
14. Tuck the tip of the wings under
15. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. =)

Ingredients

Compound butter

Watch her video to understand the steps better: here. Her chicken is bigger than mine that is why our measurements and baking times are different. Why so few garlic..because I’m out of unpeeled ones.=P

There’s something about this chicken that is FANTABULOUS! When I was cutting it, the juices were pouring out. It’s nicely cooked. Tender and juicy on the inside and incredibly crispy on the outside. It’s amazing how these few ingredients could make such a wow-zaa dinner. It may sound a bit hard because of the steps, but really, once you try it, it’s not as hard as it seems. What’s hard is the waiting. So..snack on something while you wait. It.is.worth.the.wait!

Have fun in the kitchen!You'll have even more fun eating your home cooked meal afterwards!

Happy Sunday!

Wasalam.

Till then, 

Love,

Sofhan Hasni

Cold Soba Noodle

Assalamualaikum!

So I told myself that I shouldn’t be working on any school work today.I need to breathe..But of course being a McGill nerd that I am, I’m already thinking about my third term paper that is due in about a week from now.Breathe..So I decided to make a feast for myself. Roasted whole chicken is nicely sizziling in the oven. At the moment, that’s my background music. For the time being, I shall write about my cold soba noodle.

I was writing my term paper for ANTH 206 class. The paper was fun to write. I leanred so much about the Mro Tribe in Bangladesh. But at the same time, I WAS CRAVING FOR JAPANESE FOOD!

Last time I came back to Montreal, I took the Malaysian Airlines flight and transited in Narita Airport in Japan. On the flight, the food was AMAZEBALLS.So delicious. I can’t remember what I ahd for the main course but I distinctively rmemebered the side dish. It was a cold green noodle with soy-ish sauce with strips of seaweed on the top. It was goooooood. I am of course the jakun one who have no idea what its called. I even googled and twitted about it. I even googles (Malaysian Airlines inflight menu)I’m so oathertic sometimes.*head down* Then my friend Munie was telling me perhaps its soba noodles.

So I did more resaech and true enough. It’s the cold version of soba noodle served with dipping sauce. I was ecstatic! I found the rcipe. BUT. It calls for mirin, which ,most of the time has alcohol in it. Then I did what anyone would do…find its substitute.So I made my own. Halal one.WEE!

I halved the dipping sauce recipe but I still have more! I already had a whole *cough* packet *cough* of soba noodles which was about 5 servings and I still have about half of the dipping sauce I made. The next time I have cravings for soba noodles, I only have to cook more noodles.Thats all!:)

Also, we won’t be using all of the mirin. You cpould also keep that and perhaps make some teriyaki with it.

The original recipe : here

Homeamde mirin: here

Mirin

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoon of rice vinegar

1. Put the water and sugar in a sauce pan on medium high heat. Wait till all of the sugar dissolved.
2. Turn off heat and wait for a few minutes to let the syrup slightly cool
3. Stir in the rice vinegar

Cold Soba Noodle with Dipping Sauce

1 packet of soba noodle

1. Cook as instructed on the label
2. (reserve some of the cooking water)
3. Using a  colander, wash the cooked soba noodle under cold water for 30 seconds or until the noodle is cold.
4. Put in the fridge before serving

  

Dipping sauce

1 small bottle of Japanese soy sauce (148 ml)

1/2 cup of mirin

1/2 cup of sugar

1. In a saucepan, heat everything together until the sugar dissolved.
2. Let cool.

To assemble:

1. Garnish the soba noodle with shredded seaweed sheet and some sesame seed.
2. Serve with dipping sauce and wasabi on the side.
3. The dipping sauce is very salty and strong in flavor. Add little by little to make sure that you put the right amount of sauce on your noodle.

Variation:

Add some of the cooking water or what is called “sobayu” in Japanese in a bowl along with the noodle and dipping sauce. SO it’ll be a soba noodle soup instead. So yummeh!

One thing to note is that Japanese soy sauce and Chinese soy sauce are not the same.Their brewing styles are different thus taste different as well. 

Enjoy!

Wasalam.

Till then, 

Love,

Sofhan Hasni

Mini Pumpkin Pies

Assalamualaikum!

I could breathe in and out slowly now. Phew. Two more term papers and 3 weeks of finals. I can do this. I can do this!

Prior coming to Montreal, I've never had pumpkin pies. Ever. Pumpkin is not something we use much in our cooking and the pumpkins back home are like apples compared to the ones here. HUGENORMOUS! I made pumpkin pie last year for a potluck. but didn't even try it. I made mini pumpkin pies for a bakesale. Still didn't try any. I finally had my first pumpkin pie after my third batch. What was I thinking? Letting people eat things that I didn't even try first. Alhamdulillah my friends are still alive.=p

I have a lazy butt so I don’t even bother making small pie crusts. I bought them at the grocery store. =)

Oh! Check the ingredients please. Some of them contain lard. And..we don’t want that in our food do we?

Original recipe: here

Mini Pumpkin Pies

Make 45

1 can (796ml) of pumpkin pie filling

1 can (375ml) evaporated milk

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1 egg

¼ teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

45 small pie crusts

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit
2. In a large bowl mix everything together, except the crust of course. Set aside.
3. Arrange the pie crust on a cookie sheet.
4. Pour in the filling mixture evenly in all the crusts.
5. Bake for 15-17 mins. DONE!

Tip: This actual recipe calls for pumpkin PUREE and not pie filling. But I still add the sugar and loved it. However, if you’re not into extremely sweet desserts, add the sugar last and  reduce the amount of sugar if you like.

When buying canned pumpkin, pay more attention to what it is you are buying. One of the things that pie filling has is the pumpkin pie spice. Which is nutmeg, cinnamon, and a few more that I can’t remember  But for me, if I have cinnamon, I’m good.=)

Mix em goood!

 My pumpkin pies were well behaved. In the sense that they didn't really crack on the top. Wee!Feel free to serve it with whipped cream.*drool*

I woke up really late today and I’m still sleepy…whatevs..

Bundle up everybody!

Take care.

Wasalam.

Till then, Love,

Sofhan Hasni 

Krista is 21! :White Rosette Cake

Assalamualaikum!

Last Thursday was our dearest friend, Krista's birthday. They invited me to a surprise birthday dinner but I can't make it. =( She is the nicest,sweetest,kindest girl I've met.So sweet it's hard not to fall in love with her. Now that I think of it, the first time we met was 2 years ago at Juliette et Chocolat and she was wearing a white dress with a red coat.I know.I still remember what my friend Zainab was wearing during Frosh two years ago.I'm a creep like that.=P

Anyhoots,since I can't make it to the dinner, I decided to make her a birthday cake instead. I settled for cupcakes at first, but , no no, she's too special, cupcakes won't do. I learnt that she loves chocolate and berries. With the time constraint, I decide to make somewhat the same cake I made for Trisha and Justine's Birthday. Chocolate cake with strawberry cheesecake filling. BUT, this time, I used vanilla icing and  I put chocolate coated strawberries on the top. I cheated by the way. I didn't have enough time (term papers due and a friend is coming over to make red velvet cuppies ) plus I don't have enough ingredients, I used the  boxed ones. Honestly, if you'r making a two layer cake, please spent some time making them from scratch.SO MUCH BETTER.

Wee!

Vanilla Buttercream Icing

1 Cup shortening
1 cup butter
2 1/2 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoon of vanilla

Beat everything together.Boom!done.

ahhh, mine is so messy!Oh well!

Chocoloate cake with strawberry cheesecake filling, recipe: here
Youtube video on how to make rosettes: here
try watching that and google for more tutorials.The ones on youtube were very helpful!

 

Happy 21st Birthday Krista!Lots of love!

Okay lovelies, take care!
Wasalam.

Love,

Sofhan Hasni

Garden of Dahlias

Assalamualaikum!

These are the cupcakes I made for MSA’s Colour of Eid :A Night of Celebration. We had to bring cultural food, since I didn’t have much time, I made more cupcakes! Yeay! Plus some pumpkin pies. ;)

I saw this technique a while ago but never got around trying them.I love love love flowers! So here is my take on off pink Dahlias..

White Dahlia

Pink Dahlia

A whole garden of them!

Brrr...It's super chilly outside.Stay warm!

Wasalam

Till then,

Love,

Sofhan Hasni

Classic French Apple Tart

Assalamualaikum!

I need a break. I really do. I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE HOLIDAYS! I wasn't joking when I tell you that October had been a crazy month in Montreal! Cray Cray!A 4.5 scale earthquake and Hurricane Sandy warning. Never being involved in a natural disaster myself I was pretty scared. Wait. REALLLY SCARED. I was about to go to the bathroom when the earthquake happened. It felt like my building was about to rumble. There was a loud noise that came with it. I didn't pee in my pants though. We were never taught about the safety precautions during natural disasters. Especially these kinds of unpredictable disasters. I didn't know what to do. Should I hide under the desk? Should I run outside? Everyone seemed to be on their Facebooks. Is that one of the precautions I should take? Update my status straight away? AHA!

This week, Hurricane Sandy hits the east coast of the US and predicted to move up to Toronto and Montreal. On Monday, I was a bit distraught and I felt like baking. So I went to the store and bought apples. On my way out, I saw boxes and boxes of bottled water. It was 2 boxes for 5$. I was like.. ”Oh,this is cheap!” and walked away. A hurricane was on its way and there was a possibility of water shortage, it still didn't hit me. I’m so smart sometimes I feel like smacking my own head.

I watched this video on Youtube: here. Ever since, I DREAMT about making that pie. It’s crazy! A girl like me who is crazy about flowers and anything French, I knew I JUST HAD TO make it. However, I didn't use the recipe on Youtube. after I made mine, I realized there are some changes that I need to make.It's sooo easy I couldn't believe it myself.So here is my take on Classic French Tart.

P/s I used a store bought pie crust.:) You can use this crust recipe:here. Half the recipe though!

Classic French Apple Tart

Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahreheit

Apple Compote

2 Macintosh apples

1/4 -1/3 cup of brown sugar (depends on the sweetness of the apple)

1/4 cup of orange juice

1/4 cup of water

A pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1. Peel,core and cut the apples
2. Put all of the ingredients in a saucepan
3. Using medium heat, let it simmer and thickens.
4. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the apples are tender.
5. Using a fork or masher, mash the apples finely.
6. Let cool. Note: if there is too much liquid, feel free to toss some out.
7. Spread evenly on top of crust.

Toppings

1-2 Macintosh apples

1 tablespoon of sugar

2 tablespoon of butter

1. Peel core and slice the apple thinly. Very thinly.
2. Arrange each slice nicely on the top of the apple compote starting from the sides and continue inwards.
3. Using a pastry brush, brush the apples with softened butter
4. Sprinkle the sugar on top.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Optional: Dilute some strawberry jam with water in a microwave and brush lightly on apples to give it a shiny look!

The top part is the WOW factor.Apples are in season so you definitely have a good reason to make this tart!You'd be surprised at how easy,pretty and delicious this tart is. Winter is definitely around the corner. Treat yourself to something delicious and fancy.Like this tart over here.I know I did.Oh, ice cream on the side wouldn't harm either;)

Take care!

Wasalam

Till then,A bientot,

Love,

Sofhan Hasni