Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Easy Lasagna

After not having so much success with the macarons, I decided to make lasagna for dinner. This also my first experiment, but with this I was pretty sure it won't screw up so much like those macarons. And though it might not look pretty here, it is definitely soothing to the palate and soon enough, all my frustration about those feetless macarons of mine went away.


Meat Lasagna

250g instant lasagna (it has to be instant so u don't have to pre-cook it before layering)

Meat sauce:
2 tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 can button mushroom, sliced
500g mince meat
5 tbsp tomato puree
2 fresh tomatoes, diced
2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
a pinch of basil

1. Heat oil in a saucepan, add onion, mushroom and garlic, cook until soft.
2. Add mince meat, cook until brown. Then stir in tomato puree, diced tomatoes and chicken stock.
3. Season with salt, pepper and basil and let cook for 20 minutes.

Cheese Sauce:

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp plain flour
2 cups milk
125 g mozzarella or cheddar cheese

1. Melt butter in a saucepan, stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes over low heat.
2. Remove from heat and stir in milk.
3. Return the pan back to heat, stir until thick and smooth, then add in the cheddar.
4. Season with pepper and salt as needed and stir until cheese melts.

Assembly:
1. Preheat oven to 180C and pour 1/4 of the meat sauce into a lightly greased baking dish.
2. Alternate layers of lasagna, meat and cheese sauces, ending with cheese sauce layer (make 4 layers).
3. Sprinkle with grated parmesan if desired and bake for 30 minutes with the dish covered in foil.
4. Remove foil and continue baking for a further 15 minutes until the pasta is cooked through.


And the Macaron War Begins...


Today was my first attempt of making macarons after many, many days and months of being a lazy ass. I used a basic recipe for the macarons and made some dulce de leche for the fillings. The result, as you can see, is not too satisfying but nevertheless, I am proud to have finally tried making these buggers. Just compare my job to these lovely ones from Paulette...


Whipping up the meringue was easy, I just had to make sure there were no traces of oil in my utensils or else the egg white won't rise. The baked macarons looked like they wanted to grow feet (really, they looked so promising, but still, I get no feet, only a few almost had feet). They tasted great, however, but I had a hard time removing them from the parchment paper. I ended up eating all the broken ones in my attempt to remove the little devils.


Now if anyone of you readers want to join me in this war, I'm leaving the recipe here, in this post.

Basic Macarons

3 egg whites (make sure they are at least a day old, that's what I was told)
1/4 cup of caster sugar
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup ground almond

1. Whisk the egg whites like you're making a meringue until it turns foamy.
2. Then add in the sugar and whisk again until the egg whites become glossy with soft peaks forming.
3. Add the icing sugar and the ground almond to the meringue and fold together to mix. The batter should be very thick now and flattens if you dropped a dollop of it on a surface.
4. Pipe circles of the batter from a piping bag onto a parchment paper placed on a baking sheet, leave them out for an hour at least and then bake them at 315F for around 10 minutes, till you see the feet form, then lower the temperature to 300F and bake for further 3 to 4 minutes with the oven door slightly ajar.
5. Let cool and remove from parchment paper and serve with the dulce de leche filling sandwiched in the middle.


The name dulce de leche may sounds a bit daunting, but really, it's easy and it's just made of caramelized condensed milk. Ahah! So don't fear, believe me, the making of the macarons are what anyone should be scared of. 

Dulce de Leche Filling

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

1. Boil the can of milk in a pot of boiling water for an hour. Always make sure the can is always immersed under water all the time. (And remove the paper label outside the can, before you dunk it in water!)
2. Cool the can before opening or else the condense milk might spurt into your face. Whip the milk in a small bowl until smooth and keep refrigerated till you're ready to use it.

There's another way of making this, but I'm telling you the easiest way of making it. My dulce de leche went well but it was a little too runny to hold up between the macarons. Maybe I should just settle for some ganache or buttercream the next time.


So, good luck to you and to myself too. Till my next macaron war, I reckon I'm gonna be successful the next time around.. Tata!