What's better than homemade, all purpose Tomato Sauce?

Step 1 - Finely dice 1 to 2 ribs of celery and 1 onion. Mince 3 cloves of garlic and chop a small bunch of Italian parsley. You can adjust the amount of celery depends on how big or long they are, I used 2 ribs in the video.

Step 2 - In a large sauce pan, with a tablespoon of olive oil, sweat the celery and onions on low heat for 7-9 minutes. You want them to be completely softened but you don't want them to brown. Add in freshly ground pepper, salt, vinegar(optional), sugar, cayenne pepper and dried herbs.

Step 3 - Once they're completely softened, add in minced garlic and cook it for a minute or two. **(In fact, you should add in tomato paste and cook for another 2 minutes after this step, I was rushing because I had to go out for a dinner for CNY, so I forgot... shame....) 

Step 4 - Pour in 2 cans of crushed plum tomatoes,1 cup of water and chopped fresh Italian parsley. Turn the heat to medium or medium high and bring it to a simmer. 

Step 5 - Once it comes to a simmer, turn the heat back to low and let it simmer for 1.5 hour covered. Stir continuously to prevent the bottom from sticking. If the sauce gets too thick, add another splash of water and continue cooking.



Step 6 - After 1.5 hour, continue cooking and reduce the sauce uncovered for about 15-20 minutes. Add in tomato paste(if you did it in step 3, you can't just leave it, but if you think your sauce needs more colour, you can adjust by yourself. Why? Cause u're the boss of your sauce:P).

Ingredients: 

1-2 ribs of celery

1 onion

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon white sugar

2 teaspoon white vinegar (optional, but I recommend my sauce to have some acidity) 

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 

1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary 

1 teaspoon dried bay leaf (or 1 whole bay leaf)

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 cloves of garlic

2 cans of plum tomato (mine was 28oz each, so 56oz together)

1/2 cup of chopped fresh Italian parsley

1 cup water

2 tablespoon tomato paste

French Macarons

Step 1 - Separate 3 large eggs, you need exactly half a cup of egg whites. You might have more than half a cup of egg whites in 3 eggs, put the excess egg whites and use it cook something else. You must leave the egg whites in room temperature for at least 7 hours before using them. It depends on which country you live in, for example, Toronto's weather is dry, you can leave the egg whites in room temperature for 7 hours or up to 12 hours and they won't turn bad. But lets say you live in Hong Kong, a very humid country, you might have to leave them in the fridge for 30-40 hours, then leave them in room temperature for 1 hour before using them.

Step 2 - Sift 125g almond flour or almond meal and 175g powdered sugar into a large bowl. Use a small spoon to help crushing the almond through the sifter. Almond flour or almond meal are very difficult to find, I can only find almond meal in Freshco (in Toronto). The brand name is called Compliment - ground almonds, it's also Freshco's product. You cannot replace almond flour to normal all-purpose flour, they are completely different.

Step 3 - Pour the egg whites into a large bowl. Using the highest setting of your electric beater and whip the egg whites for 4-6 minutes until firm and shiny. Slowly add in fine granulated white sugar in when the egg whites start to turn white. Then add in 2-3 drops of gel paste food colouring. Gel paste food colouring are also hard to find, you could use liquid food colouring but that might give the egg whites too much moisture and might affect the results. So if you're using liquid food colouring, I recommend you to let your egg whites 3-4 hours more. To tell if the whipped egg whites are ready, turn the bowl upside down for 2 seconds, if it doesn't move at all, it's readied. If you're doing the "epic test", don't blame me if you fail :P

Step 4 - Pour the first 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and use a spatula to fold in the dry ingredients. You can ONLY use the folding technique to incorporate it, do not use any other technique. By folding it will produce the least amount of air to the batter, you don't want any air in your Macarons, because they will crack while baking and they will look horrible. Once the first 1/3 of the dry ingredients are just mixed, pour in the second 1/3 and so on. Make sure you do not over mix.

Step 5 - Transfer all the batter to a large pastry bag or piping bag with a 1/2 inch plain round tip. Make sure you use a clip to clip the bottom part of the pastry bag so the batter won't leak out while preparing.

Step 6 - Lay the sample sheet and parchment paper on a baking sheet and start piping you Macarons.

Step 7 - Let your Macarons sit in room temperature for 1-2 hours. Until the surface of your Macarons are slightly hardened and it's not sticky. Gently touch the surface with your finger to test them.

Step 8 - Put them into a preheated 300°C oven for 10-14 minutes. After the first 4-5 minutes, open the oven and leave a gap for one minute to let the steam out. Every oven is different, so you have to play around with it a couple times to practice, some might need 325°C, some might need to take longer etc. Just one thing you have to remember, making Macarons is seriously the hardest thing to counter. The weather and temperature could affect the results. Don't expect you will success for the first try.

Step 9 - When they're done, remove the parchment paper with the hot Macarons from the baking sheet, this will stop cooking the bottom of the Macarons. Transfer them to a cooling rack and don't touch your Macarons. When they're cooled completely, remove them from the parchment paper and start piping your filling and sandwich your Macarons. I'll upload another video on how to make Chestnut Butter Cream filling very soon, so stay tuned. Enjoy:)

Tips & Techniques
a) You must leave the egg whites in room temperature for at least 7 hours before using them. Your Macarons will not rise if the humidity level is too high. So for the entire recipe, you basically don't want any moisture.
b) Try to use a hard plastic bowl to whip the egg whites. I've tried to use glass or metal bowl, the egg whites turn out weird because the bowl was too cold. You want something that's not a good conductor.
c) If the almond flour or almond meal that's you're using doesn't sift through your sifter, use a food processor to make them finer. Be very careful not to over blend, because oil might be produced.
d) You must use a very accurate food weight to measure everything in this recipe.
e) Every oven is different. In my case, I have to put my baking sheet towards the outside, not even in the center of the oven.
f) Use 2 layers of parchment paper can help preventing the bottom part of your Macaron shell from burning.
g) Don't expect you will success for your first try. Remember, making Macarons really depends on the weather and how long you let your macarons and egg whites sit. You have to practice a lot of times to make good Macarons.


Ingredients

125g almond flour/ almond meal/ ground almond

175g powdered sugar/ icing sugar

1/2 cup aged overnight egg whites

75g white granulated sugar

2-3 drops gel paste food colouring

(or 2 drops liquid food colouring)

Crème Brûlée!

Step 1 - Pour in 2 cups heavy cream to a pot. I used 35% cream, you can use 18% if you want but it's not as good.

Step 2 - Cut the vanilla bean in half, then scrape off the seeds with a small knife. Put the seeds and the bean into the cream. Vanilla beans are kind of hard to find and expensive, if you couldn't get them, replace it by using Vanilla extract.

Step 3 - Heat the  vanilla cream mixture with medium low heat for about 4 minutes or until the cream turns a bit yellow. You don't want your cream to boil because cream is very easy to burn, specially the bottom of your pot, so make sure you keep stirring while you're heating it.

Step 4 - Strain your hot cream mixture. By that you can make your custard smoother and you can remove large chunks of vanilla seeds, beans or even egg shells. 

Step 5 - Separate 4 large eggs. In this recipe, you only need the yolks. Transfer the yolks to a large bowl, put in sugar and mix well.

Step 6 - Temper your egg yolks by adding a couple tablespoons of your hot cream mixture and give it a couple of stir. Then slowly pour in the rest of your hot cream mixture into the large bowl. The purpose of tempering the egg yolks is to prevent the hot cream mixture to cook the egg yolks, or else your egg yolks will solidify.

Step 7 - Use a butane torch to remove all the bubbles on the surface, the bubbles should be removed immediately like magic. Use a spoon to remove excess bubbles or foams.

Step 8 - Place your ramekins into an ovenproof container or a casserole. Carefully fill your ramekins, they should be filled almost to the top. Again, use the butane torch to remove the rest of the bubbles.

Step 9 - Fill your ovenproof container or casserole with boiling water, make sure you don't drip any water into the custard mixture. The water level should reach about half way through the ramekins.

Step 10 - Put them into a preheated 150C° oven for 25-30 minutes. When they're done, their consistency should be like jelly. After they are cooled enough to handle, take them out and let it sit for 30 minutes then put them into the fridge for at least one hour. You can serve them right away if you like your creme brulee hot.

Step 11 - Sprinkle brown sugar on top of your custard just enough to cover, use a butane torch to caramelize the sugar until it starts to bubble. You should purposely have some dark burnt spots, although it's bitter but it holds a lot of flavor. You should always do this step right before you serve them, because the caramelized sugar will melt and become soggy within 30 minutes. Enjoy:)

Ingredients:

2 cup  Heavy Cream ( I used 35%)

1 whole vanilla bean 

(or 1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract)

4 to 8 tablespoon white granulated sugar (depends on how sweet you what) 

4 egg yolks

For the caramelized sugar (per serving):

2 teaspoon brown sugar or white granulated sugar 

Christmas Gingerbread Cookies

This is how I designed my cookies :)
I actually stayed up all night from 8pm till 8am (12 hours!!) to make these cookies for all my friends.
I made around 300 cookies for 18 friends. All the cookies came with a beautiful tin container.

Step 1 - Cut 2 sticks of unsalted butter into cubes and leave them in room temperature for 1 hour. In a large bowl, use an electric beater to cream softened butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. (Tip: make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl.)

Step 2 - Crack one large egg and mix until the egg is just about to disappear.

Step 3 - Pour in one cup of Molasses and mix well. One cup might seem a lot, but I can tell you, it's not. I don't like my recipes to be too sweet, so don't worry about the cookies are going to be very sweet.

Step 4 - In another large bowl, weight out 5 cups of all purpose-flour and put in ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg(optional), ground ginger, baking soda and a pinch of salt. Use a fork to mix them and break down the lumps, you can sift it if you want. (If your dough is too soft and seems like it needs more flour, put a few tablespoons of flour and work on your dough until you get the right consistancy.)

Step 5 - Pour 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Keep folding until most of the flour are gone then pour in the second 1/3 of the dry ingredients and so on.

Step 6 - Once everything is combined together, transfer you dough to a large surface or a cutting board, work on the dough for about a minute or two, then split you dough to half and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap. Put them into the fridge for 2 hours.

Step 7 - 2 hours later, you dough should be slightly firmer and will be easy to work on. Roll your dough to about 5mm thin and use your favorite cookie cutters and start cutting out your cookies. Then transfer your cookies to a baking pan with wax paper on it.

Step 8 - Put them into a preheated 150-160C° oven and bake for 10-13 minutes or until they are golden brown. Let them cool completely and decorate your gingerbread cookies with icing!! Enjoy :)

Do you guys want me to do a tutorial on how to decorate the cookies?

I will be making 200 Ginger Cookies and decorate with my design for my lovely friends, so I can show you guys how to using icing!!

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup molasses
5 cup all-purpose flour (maybe you will need 1/2 cup more)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional, I didn't use this in my video)
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

More Macarons and Crème brûlée

 This weekend Ruby and I made even more Macarons, both of us want to master making these amazing stuff. Both of us are going crazy, we made Macaron with Chestnut Butter Cream on Saturday and Macaon with Strawberry Cream on Sunday.

This time, it took us much less time to make them. We are getting a lot better than before. For the ones we made on Sunday, all 42 shells came out perfect, all of them don't have cracks or anything. The most important part of Macarons is the foot, the foot is the bottom part of the shell which rises up while you bake them. The higher the foot, the better your shells are. Right now we have confident that we will not fail again, hopefully we can get even better at make them as soon as possible. Leave a comment in my blog as anonymous and tell me your name at the end of your comment, write on my facebook wall or youtube channel and tell me if you guys want me to make a video recipe of Macarons:)

Egg whites are the key ingredient of making Macarons, but not the egg yolks. So every time we make Macaons, we will have a couple of egg yolks sitting around the fridge and we don't know what to do with it, so this time we decided to use them to make Crème brûlée. Again, tell me if you guys want me to a video recipe for Crème brûlée:)

Sky Blue Macarons with Toblerone chocolate ganache

This weekend Ruby and I decided to make Macarons again, we failed a couple times before. 

And this time we have learned from the previous failures, we had the greatest success ever. 

We failed a couple times before
because we did not have an electric weight so we kind of guessed the amount of ingredients by eye. But when you're making Macarons, the amount of ingredients has to be critical. So we bought an electric weight last week and this time we finally succeed.

A perfect Macaron should have 3 different layers. First, the outer layer of the shell should be crispy but not hard.Then the middle layer should be soft and slightly moist. And the last layer will be the ganache. And we had all of them, a perfect Macaron!!! Our's were a lot better then some Macarons that we bought outside, they were usually too firm, too sweet or taste funny.

And one more thing, it's Macarons not Macaroons, with one O. Macaroons are something else,a lot of people didn't know the difference :P  I'm not making this into a recipe again because I'm still a beginner in making Macarons,as some of you guys know, Macarons are super hard to make. So when I start getting better in making them, I will make a video recipe on How to make Macarons for you guys :)