Simplicity

There's always beauty with simplicity. Simplicity in appearance, simplicity in food. Sometimes I like to be elaborate & picky, but every now and then, I'm a little too lazy to do something complicated.

I haven't really cooked or baked much lately, but I made something simple that was easy and wowed my family. Green tea panna cotta.

For me, panna cotta has always been one of my favourite desserts. Basically like a pudding; soft, creamy with that little jiggle. It's simple.

Now, perhaps some of you are like 'Hold your horse! Isn't panna cotta difficult to do?' So, some of you may be intimidated to make panna cotta like I was initially, but it turns out, it's actually super super easy. Who loves fast & easy desserts? *Raise hands*

Honestly? You'll probably have all these ingredients in your pantry except for the green tea powder. However, I do suggest buying some green tea powder because it's a beauty in desserts (e.g my green tea ice cream). I'd dial up the green tea powder and take down the sweetness just a little. But other than that, it was simple, and pretty perfect.

P.S you can find me on Twitter now!

Green tea panna cotta
Serves 6 (I made about 7 ramekins)

Ingredients
1 and 1/2 tsp green tea powder (I'd increase to 2 or 2 and 1/2)
600 ml (21 fl oz) cream
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp gelatine powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
*Optional: Sliced fruit

Method:
1. Put the green tea powder in saucepan with a little of the cream. Mix and form a paste. Then, whisk the remaining cream, ensuring that there are no lumps.
2. Add sugar the saucepan, stirring to dissolve. Then, slowly bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Then remove from heat.
3. Put the gelatine in a small bowl and whisk in 1/4 cup of the hot cream to form a smooth paste. Return the mixture to the saucepan, stirring until the gelatine has completely dissolved. Rest for 10 minutes to allow it to infuse.
4. Strain the mixture into a large bowl, then add milk & vanilla and stir to combine.
5. Pour into teacups/moulds/ramekins, and chill for at least 3 hours or until set.

Adapted from Yoshoku via Ooh-look

Japanese cheesecake cupcakes

The weather has been driving me absolutely nuts. Last week, the weather was so miserable, I could not go for a run. And when I'm too lazy to go for runs, that equals to = more laziness and eating. And now, I'm even more annoyed because the sun just started to shine, and I already ate lunch BECAUSE THE SKY WAS GREY. So my mood and my tummy are not too happy. People who live in Melbourne will understand my annoyance at the weather.

Anyway, what's not annoying are these cupcakes. They're kind of dreamy to me. Perhaps, like Dr. McDreamy to Grey's anatomy fans. But these are McCheesecake-dreamy (or should it be the other way around?). Like eating clouds or pillows? Get what I mean?

As a child, I would always love to peer outside the window (always loved the window seat) while flying because I was intrigued about clouds, since they looked like cotton balls to me. I had crazy thoughts, like any other 3 year old. "What if I could jump out of the plane and sleep on one of those clouds?" The original title of the recipe is "Cotton soft cheesecake". It is really like cotton-soft-cloud-cheesecake.

I was able to make 12 cheesecake cupcakes and 1 loaf! The batter is quite a bit, so I recommend halving the recipe if you're making cupcakes. I also put a green tea swirl, and stupidly enough I forgot to add some sugar. So it was a bit too bitter, so later I put some jam on top to try and balance it out. I also think a chocolate swirl would be really nice! Just use cocoa powder instead.

This is a different recipe to the one I used for my big Japanese cheesecake with the strawberries. I like both recipes, both easy! Although, I'll have to admit that I like the cornstarch added to it because I feel that it adds a bit more fluffiness, but nevertheless I still love Nami's recipe (the other one I used).

Japanese cheesecake
Ingredients
250 g (9 oz) cream cheese
140 g (5 oz) granulated sugar *
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50 g (2 oz) unsalted butter
100 ml (3.3 oz) fresh milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
60 g/2 oz cake flour / superfine flour (I didn't have cake flour, so I just one tbsp flour and added more cornstarch)
20 g/ 1 oz cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp salt
* I increased the sugar to 155 g because I know that Japanese cheesecake is not very sweet, and I like eating it plain but with just enough sweetness.

*swirl (if using) : mix 1 tbsp of green tea powder with 3-4 tbsp of hot water. Add a bit of sugar if desired (recommended).

Method:
1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture and then sift flour, cornflour, add the egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.
2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add sugar and whisk until soft peak forms.
3. Add the cheese mixture to egg white mixture and mix well. Pour into an 8 inch round cake pan or into desired pan.
4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 C (325 F)
Adapted from Diana's desserts

Green tea ice cream

When I was exploring around Japan, I had an authentic, and interesting food journey there. Although it was on a tour, and there were set menus, the food was still pretty darn good. I loved the miso soup, the tempura, green tea Kit Kat (I am dying to find some in Melbourne!) and all these interesting foods.I even had a 'cherry-blossom' flavour ice cream.

I would go back to Japan in a heartbeat. There's something about the politeness of the Japanese that makes me feel welcome. And also how it is a seriously cool country (music and warm seat options for a toilet?!?!) But anyway, back on to green tea ice cream. I made this recipe by David Lebovitz last year for Christmas, and while I liked it, I felt that it was a bit too rich and creamy for my liking for green tea ice cream. I recently went to eat at Takumi in the city, and I ate some magical green tea ice cream (pictures later), that had the perfect consistency of it being not too creamy, but not too icy either. And the green tea flavour was just the spot.