Very demolishable White Chocolate Cupcakes

The kids in the family I work for seem to be currently obsessed with white chocolate anything. So the other afternoon, myself and the 7-year-old created these. (She, I must point out, is DEEPLY into sugar and went quite to town in the toppings.) I’d say normally this recipe would be for 24 cupcakes, but she was also somewhat over-enthusiastic with her spooning of the mix and we ended up with 18 generous cupcakes. The decorations were fairly excessive also. Fun fun fun!

Afterwards, I was informed by all small people subsequently effected by this batch that I could, indeed, make them again!
Next time, I shall try them with gluten free flour and see how they go.

You need:
180 g white eating chocolate, chopped
250 g unsalted butter, chopped
1 c of sour cream or crème fraiche
( or ½ ½ sour cream/yoghurt as I did)
2 eggs
1 ¼ c caster sugar
1 ½ t vanilla essence
1 ¾ c flour
1 c self-raising flour

Icing:
¾ cup icing sugar
125 g white eating chocolate, melted
125 g butter, softened
Lemon zest of 1 lemon (optional)

To do:
Preheat your oven to 160 C.
Line 2 x 12 hole muffin cases w foil or paper cases.

Put chocolate, butter, sour cream and sugar in a saucepan and heat while stirring, over a low heat until melted and well combined for 4 mins.
Set aside and cool for at 15 mins.
Add vanilla essence and eggs and mix gently to combine.
Sift flours together in a separate bowl.
Add about ¼ of the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth. Continue adding choc mixture, folding gently until all is combined, a bit at a time.
Spoon your mix into cupcake cases.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cakes spring back lightly when touched, and are golden in colour.
Remove from oven and cool for 5 mins, before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

ICING:
In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy and pale, finally stir in melted chocolate until smooth.

Ice cakes, decorate as you like and demolish!

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Spicy Thai glass noodle salad

Tom Yum Paste (Sweet Thai Chili Paste)

Nam        Prik     Pao

(Water   chilli     burnt bbq)

This versatile paste can be used in a lot more ways than when just making Tom Yum Soup. Thai people also it for stir-fry, BBQ meats and marinades, with seafood, salads ( see my Spicy Thai Glass noodle Salad recipe), in fried rice, for dips with fresh vege crudités and also with Deep fried fish skin pieces as a dip as well!

NOTE:

This makes a decent sized amount, say ¾ of a blender.

You can keep it in the fridge for up to 2 months or freeze in ice cubes ( great for portion control!) for up to 1 year.

Use 2 ice cubes per portion or more depending on what you are making.

Ten Thai dishes, day 2.

Green Papaya Salad ( Som Tan)

(Som        Tan             Marakor)
Sour   (v) to pound     Papaya

This is currently my favourite salad and I have eaten it nearly every day for two weeks! Super refreshing, great texture and balance of Thai flavours. Delish.

I have adapted this salad slightly from the recipe I was taught this week – I have halved the sugar quantity for my preferred taste, I did find the original recipe too sweet. Thai people generally like to eat this with warm coconut rice or sticky rice and for a complete meal you can also serve it with marinated grilled chicken.

You need:

1 ½ cup raw green papaya* ( peeled and very finely shredded)
(You can substitute with green mango, green apple or cucumber)
1/3 cup long green beans (raw) cut on the angle about 1 ½ inches long
3 cherry tomatoes cut in half or one plum tomato into quarters
3-5 fresh red hot chillies* (to taste)
2 whole cloves garlic
¼ cup unsalted roasted peanuts
1 ½ T dried small shrimp*
1 ½ T fish sauce*
2 ½ T lime juice
¾ T palm sugar*
½ tsp. white cane sugar

To do:

1. Pound the chillies and garlic in a large wooden mortar until crushed.
2. Add the beans, shrimp and peanuts and gently pound until also crushed.
3. Ad the fish sauce, lemon juice, and sugars and mix well.
4. Add the papaya and tomatoes, pound very gently and mix well.
5. Serve on a banana leaf on a small platter, can be served also with raw crudites. (See photo)

* Asian stores stock these ingredients.

Vegetarians, you can omit the fish sauce…..eeeek, it won’t quite be the same.

My reflections on Thailand so far…

This is a wonderful country. I can’t believe I’ve not been here before, really. I guess I’ve meandered around this globe quite well, but regrettably less of Asia as a whole and this time here in Thailand has been quite blissful indeed.

I think it’s lit a whole new travelling fire- bug situation!

Tarte aux Quetsches