I study Medicine, I cook, I photograph, I eat.
And I do it in that order
Contact: pmmsony@gmail.com
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Making Toblerone Cheesecake
When Brigid from DIGITAS first e-mailed and told me about “Snack Hack”, a project where you create a dish using two or more Mondelēz International (formerly known as Kraft foods Inc.) products to add to the already drool-worthy spread at Snackworks, the first thing that came to mind was,”I got to make me some S’mOreos!”.
Think about it - it could have an oreo base and smooth, melted toblerones sandwiched with some ooey-gooey marshmallows.
Too bad Rob from Go Cook Yourself beat me to it. As a result, I made a more subtle approach; a chocolate cheesecake. In the past I have expressed my dislike of chocolate cheesecakes. The combination just doesn’t do it for me, but the nougat in a bar of Toblerone might just do the trick. And don’t worry about slaving away scraping off the filling from the Oreos - just put the whole darn thing in a food processor and whizz away.
NO-BAKE TOBLERONE CHEESECAKE(serves 6-8):
[14-16 Oreo biscuits + 1/4 cup butter, melted + 500 grams of cream cheese, softened at room temperature + 1/2 cup sugar + 2 bars of 200gr Toblerone chocolate, divided + 1/2 cup heavy cream ]
Crush the Oreo into crumbs (filling included, just whizz the whole thing in a food processor or put it inside a ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin)and add melted butter.
Mix until it has the consistency of wet sand. Press onto bottom of a 9 inch (23 cm) spring form pan (or a cake tin lined with cling film, leaving extra on the rim for tags) and chill for 30 minutes.
Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer for 5 minutes. Add sugar and melted Toblerone and heavy cream. and continue beating until well combined. Roughly chop some Toblerone chocolate and fold into the batter.
Pour onto the prepared crumb base and return to the fridge and chill for at least 4 hours.
To serve, roughly chop the remainder bar of Toblerone and scatter on top. You can also drizzle some melted chocolate, if you like.
Enjoy!
Making Matcha Dorayaki
What I know is this: the perfect pancake is a Japanese dorayaki. It is light and fluffy, not overly sweet and doesn’t become soggy or floppy when cold. The traditional dorayaki requires that it be stuffed with red bean paste, but nowadays anything goes. Chocolate, whipped cream, jam? Whatever you like.
I thought this was needed to make up for the previous post. Some have mentioned that this blog is part angst, part satire and parked right in the macabre spectrum in terms of food photography (although that to me doesn’t sound that bad). Let me just say this: some days it takes hours to formulate a post where I have to actually think of what I’m going to write. Some days, like today, the words were taking form in my head as I was putting a layer of cling film on the batter and stashing it in the fridge. I can already see the sequence of photos as I was licking the whisk clean. It comes and goes in waves.
MATCHA DORAYAKI (makes 4 dorayaki sandwich):
Sift flour, matcha and baking powder into the bowl and mix. Keep in the fridge to rest for 15 minutes.
Stir in ½ tablespoon of water at a time to get the right consistency. You should be able to make slowly-forming ribbons with the whisk.
Heat a large non-stick frying pan on medium-low to medium heat. Dip a paper towel in oil and coat the bottom of the pan with the oil. The pan should be slightly oiled but shouldn’t be visible, so you’ll have a dorayaki with an evenly browned surface.
With a ladle, drop the batter from 1 foot above the pan to create 3 inch diameter “pancakes”.
When you see the surface of batter starts to bubble, flip over and cook the other side. Transfer to a plate and cover up with damp towel to prevent from drying.
Sandwich two dorayaki with whatever filling you like. I filled mine with some whipped cream and blueberry compote.Whatever filling you choose, put more of it in the center so the shape of Dorayaki will be curved (middle part should be higher).
Wrap in cling film until you are ready to serve.
Enjoy!
“Everything but the kitchen sink” pasta.
When I was younger, there was this one thing that I did when I get upset or when someone tells me off.
I would find a dark room, go behind the door and pull it towards me until it traps me in between the wall and the door panel. Then I would sit and wait for someone to persuade me to come out of the dark. I learnt from then on that I needed that sense of seclusion when dealing with a lot of stress.
With a schedule of almost daily night shifts in the surgical department, having to adjust to moving into a new apartment closer to the hospital and pushing aside relationship issues, my head is close to bursting. I skipped the apartment, came home last night and emptied half the contents of my stomach into the toilet; something of a re-occurrence for the past few days. Made a mental note to go to the hospital and realized the irony of it all, and then found myself wishing I could just find a dark room and hide.
But in the end I settled on taking a sick-day and sleeping off the emotions and tiredness and spent the morning on the porch listening to the birds. Then opened the fridge to see it overflowing with ingredients on the verge of going bad. And decided to make a bowl of pasta. I’m not going to include a recipe for this since I don’t feel much up to writing it up at the moment, so please enjoy the pictures instead.
“Do you know what it says?”
“What?”
“Happy birthday Dudley Dursley! Do you know why??”
*Laughs* “Why?”
“Because I got you more presents than last year!”
And just like that, I turned 23. I seriously have the best sister ever. Even if she did drop the cake just seconds before the clock struck 12.
Making Suya
About a thousand years ago, misskenshin made a foodwish for Suya. At the time, I had no idea what it is and after some searching found out that it is a trademark of the northern part of Nigeria; delicious bits of peanut-rubbed, spiced beef on sticks that are cooked over hot coals. I then added that foodwish to the growing list that have yet still to be made.
About a week ago, during a particularly long briefing before my afternoon shift, I started searching for Suya recipes. There are many variations to them; one calls for garlic, while another strictly forbids. After going through about half a dozen recipes, I’ve come up with my own take for Suya. It requires grated fresh ginger and minced garlic, as opposed to the powder form in many traditional recipes. I also added a bit of sugar for a little caramelization. Serve it with the tomatoes and onions, please, for it’d only be half as good without them.
SUYA:
[ 1 1/2 lbs beef (I used a sirloin), cut to thin slices against the grain + 1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts + 1/2 tablespoon paprika + 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper + 1/2 teaspoon salt + 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger + 1 clove of garlic, minced + juice of 1/2 a lime + 1 teaspoon sugar + 1 1/2 tablespoon oil + red onions, tomatoes and coriander leaves to serve ]
Soak some wooden skewers in water before you start
Make the peanut paste by adding the peanuts to a food processor and process till peanuts are finely ground. Add the spices and pulse a few seconds until evenly combined.
Add a bit of oil to bring it all together in a paste-like consistency. It is sort of dry, yet it clumps up together with the addition of the oil.
Add the peanut mixture to the beef spreading( smearing) a bit on each slice. Take your time with coating each slices, as you want all the pieces to be covered in the peanut marinade.
Leave the beef to marinate for a few hours up to overnight. Add the sliced beef on soaked wooden skewers or kabob skewers.
Preheat your grill on high. Oil the grill plate and place the beef skewers to cook.
Let cook for a few minutes, and then turn over and cook the other side. The sticks should be cooked in less than 10 minutes, depending on how thick your slices of meat are.
Serve the suya with fresh slices of red onion and chunks of tomato, garnished with cilantro leaves and a lime wedge.
Enjoy!
There are two kinds of people in the internship circle.
One who holds the candle and goes around lighting other people’s. And one who blows the others out to make themselves look brighter.
