Inspiration to the Baking Season - Christmas Cookies that Everyone Will Llove

Merry Christmas & a Very Happy New Year!
Christmas Cookies Recipe

Gingerbread men say... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Gingerbread man say... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

Boeuf Á La Julia Child 紅酒燉牛肉

Rezept auf Deutsch - Rindergulasch in Rotweinsoße
中文食譜 - Julia Child 紅酒燉牛肉

Boeuf Bourguignon in Julia Child Style
Ingredient for 6 people

• 1 kg beef tenderloin
• 150g bacon
• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3 cups Bordeaux red wine
• 3 cups beef stock
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• parsley springs for garnishing

Preparations

Prepare the meat

• Preheat oven to 230°C / 450°F / gas mark 8.
• Remove the bacon rinds and cut into lardons, cut the beef into chunks.
• Simmer the bacon in water for 10 minutes. In the mean time, slice the carrots and onions.
• Pat dry the bacon. Heat the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, sauté the bacon in moderate heat for 2-3 minutes to brown lightly. Then bring into the casserole.
• Reheat the pan until bacon fat almost smoking, dry the beef in paper towels and sauté until all sides are nicely browned, then add into the casserole as well.
• In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables.
• Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper and flour on the meat, toss to coat the beef lightly. Set casserole uncovered in the oven for 4 minutes. Open the oven door, toss again and browning in the oven for 4 minutes more. 
• Turn the oven heat down to 160°C / 325°F / gas mark 3.
• Bring the casserole on the stove in moderate heat. Stir in the wine, stock until the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs, bacon rind and vegetables. After the stock start to simmer, cover the casserole and put it back into the oven for 2.5-3 hours.

Oignons Glacés á Brun
Brown Braised Onion
Ingredients

• 500 gram pearl onions
• 1½ tablespoon butter
• 1½ tablespoon oil
• 1 cup beef stock, red wine, white wine or water
• 1 bouquet garni : 4 parsley springs, 5 thyme springs and 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper for seasoning

Preparations

• Wrap the parsley, thyme and bay leaf with a cheesecloth and tie with a cotton string
• In a soup pot, boil the water rapidly, drop the onions for 10 seconds. Drain in a sieve and set under running water.
• Trim off the top and bottom of the onions, slip off the onion skins and pierce a cross in the root ends.
• Heat oil and butter in a saucepan until bubbling. Add onions and sauté over moderate heat for 10 minutes. Rolling the onions to brown them evenly. 
• Pour in the liquid, season to taste and add the bouquet garni. Cover and simmer slowly for 40-50 minutes until the onions are tender and liquid has evaporated.
• Remove the bouquet garni and side the onion aside.

Champignons Sautés Au Beurre

Sautéed Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 500 gram mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon minced shallots
• salts and pepper for seasoning

Preparations

• Just before cooking the mushroom, drop them into a large basin of cold water, rub the service quickly then put into a colander and pat dry immediately.
• Place the skillet over high heat with butter and oil. Watch the butter foam and begin to subside, that means the pan is hot enough. Add the mushroom and shallots, toss and sauté for 5 minutes until brown lightly.

Assembling the Boeuf Bourguignon

• When the meat is tender and can pierce with a fork easily, the boeuf bourguignon is ready. Now we make the sauce. 
• Place a sieve over a sauce pan, pour everything from the casserole into the sieve to collect the sauce. 
• Wash the casserole, return the meat, vegetables and add the cooked onions and mushrooms.
• Heat the sauce pan and simmer for one to two minutes, skim off the fat as it rises. You should have about 2-2½ cups of thick sauce. If the sauce is too thin, boil down rapidly. If too thick, mix in few tablespoons of stock. Taste for seasoning and pour the sauce back to the casserole and bring to simmer. To serve, garnish with parsley, accompany with boiled potatoes and a glass of  bordeaux wine, bon appétit.

Ingredient checklist: Beef, bacon, carrot, onion, red wine, beef stock, tomato paste, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, flour, salt, pepper, parsley, butter and oil.
Utensils checklist: A casserole, a small pot, a frying pan, a spatula, a measuring cup, a knife, a chopping pot, a sieve, and paper towels.

Remove the bacon rinds and cut into lardons, cut the beef into chunks.

Simmer the bacon in water for 10 minutes.

In the mean time, slice the carrots and onions.

Remember! The meat must be pat dried before go into the pan, otherwise they will not brown.

Lightly brown the bacon, it smell good!

To brown the beef nicely, heat the bacon fat till almost smoking and only brown few pieces at a time, do not crown the pan.

Put the meat in the casserole, and keep browning the vegetable with the same fat.

Toss the meat with salt, pepper and flour and set the casserole uncovered in the oven. This covers the meat with a light crust.

Take the casserole from the oven, Stir in wine and stock, add vegetables and seasoning. Bring to simmer and put it back into the oven.

3D Bunny & Lamb Cookies 3D版小兔小羊曲奇

Rezept auf Deutsch - 3D Kaninchen und Lamm Plätzchen
中文食譜 - 3D版小兔小羊曲奇


3D Bunny & Lamb cookies
Ingredients for ~40 cookies

• 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoon (125g) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups (384g) all purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Decorations: red color food dye, sugar toppings, chocolate pen

Preparation

• In a mixing bowl, cream butter till light, beat in sugar until fluffy and pale yellow.
• Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy.
• Mix the salt and flour together, add the mixture into the batter by 3 additions. After all the ingredients are well blended, it will form a breadcrumb like dough.
• Take out the dough and knead into a ball shape, wrap with cling film and chill for one hour.
• Pinch about size of tablespoon of the chilled dough, drip a tiny droplet of red food dye and knead until pink. 
• Preheat the oven to 165°C / 350 °F / Gas mark 3, Line two baking papers on the baking tray. 

3D Bunnies

• To make the bunny body, take about size of a tablespoon dough, roll into a one side fuller, one side thinner oval shape, then lie on the baking tray.
• Now make the bunny ears, pinch very tiny bit of pink dough and roll into strip, then press it lightly on the rabbit body.

3D Lambs

• To make the lamb body, take about size of ¾ tablespoon dough, roll into one side fuller, one size side thinner oval shape, then lie on the baking tray.
• Pinch super tiny bit of the dough and roll into several balls, press them one by one on the lamb body except the face.
• Now make the lamb ears, pinch very tiny bit of pink dough, roll into a teardrop shape, then press it lightly on the lamb body.

Decorations

• Bake the cookies for 15~18 minutes until pale golden then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to leave cool.
• Melt the chocolate pen in hot water, paint two small dots on the faces to make the eyes, drop another dot on the bottom and stick the sugar topping to make the tail.
• After the eyes and tails appear. Look! Your super adorable little bunnies and lambs. These little fine works are truly irresistible to anyone.

Ingredients checklist: Butter, sugar, flour, salt, egg, vanilla extract, food dye, sugar topping and chocolate pen.

Utensils checklist: A scale, a measuring cup, measuring spoons, a mixing bowl, a hand mixer or electric mixer, a spatula, a baking tray and parchment paper.

Cream the butter and beat in sugar until fluffy.

After the egg and vanilla extract are added, the batter become moister and creamier.

Now add the flour,  the dough become breadcrumb like texture.

Hong Kong's summer is very hot, it is better chill the dough for a while first.

Just a very small amount of food dye already good enough to turn the dough pink. I'm sure you don't want leave any dye on your worktop, prepare it on a piece of cling film.

 Rolling the dough gently to shape the body, a sharper nose, a fuller hip, make it fun by your hand.

After the pink ears are given, the bunny shape is starting to appear : )

So much work to make the lambs!!! I am so exhausted to make just less than 10.

The cookies are cooled. Let's make the eyes and tails.

A close up... how cute they are! All my efforts are really worth it.

 Are you cruel enough to put us into your mouth >_<

Special thanks to tofu girl for her lovely recipe from "Open Mouth Insert Cookies".

Homemade Organic Strawberry Jam 自家製有機士多啤梨果醬

Rezept auf Deutsch - Hausgemachte Bio Erdbeermarmelade
中文食譜 - 自家製有機士多啤梨果醬

Homemade Organic Strawberry Jam
Ingredient for ~800ml Jam

• 1kg Strawberry 
• 750g sugar
• 3 lemons

Preparation

Stage 1: Jam Making

• First, place a clean plate in the fridge.  Soak the jars and lids in a pot of warm water and set aside.
• Juice the lemons, reserve the seeds and tie into a cheesecloth bag. Clean and hull the strawberries, cut them into half and place in the soup pot.
• Gently heat the strawberries for 5 minutes to vaporize the excess water. Pour in the sugar, lemon juice and cloth bag, bring to boil in high heat. Stir gently to the bottom of the pot to avoid burning. The jam will start to thicken after 30 minutes.
• Use a spoon to check the consistency again and again. If you see the jam can jell the spoon instead of dripping down quickly, then take the cold plate from the fridge for the jam test.
• After the jam test is passed, ladle into cleaned jars and close tightly. The first stage of strawberry jam is done. 

Stage 2: Preserving 
(If the jam will be eaten right away, you can skip these steps.)

• Reheat the hot water, put the bottle jam on a steam rack and boil hard for 15 minutes. The water level should be higher than the jars.
• After sterilized, line the jars on upright on a table to cool down for 24 hours, and don't distribute the bottles during this period.
• Next day, check the bottles one by one. Press the lids with your finger, if the lids don't pop up, they are vacuumed successfully. If you find the jars which failed the vacuum, put into the fridge for tomorrow's breakfast : )

Your homemade strawberry jam is full of fruity aroma. Why only eat as a bread or cracker spread? How about as the filling of your favorite butter cookies and spongy cakes? Or pour over vanilla ice-cream and cheese cakes? I am sure it is the best gift idea for your family and friends, let's discover more together!

Descriptions Automatiques - I. Sur Un Vaisseau - Assez Lent - Erik Satie

The super fresh and yummy strawberries. All picked from an organic farm located in Yuen Long.

Ingredients checklist: Strawberries, lemons and sugar.

Utensils checklist: A scale, a plate, a big soup pot, a cheesecloth bag, a ladle, a spatula, a spoon and jam jars.

Strawberries for jam sounds pretty certain. In fact, all berries are low in pectin and not ideal for jam making. But lemon, especially it's seeds are rich in pectin, which is the best natural ingredient to balance the consistency.

Hull the strawberries one by one and cut into half.

Pour in sugar, lemon juice and seeds. You are right, it's a lot of sugar. Apart from providing the sweetness taste, sugar is also a natural  preservative. This is the wisdom from the people of former times in fresh fruit preserving.

At the beginning, the liquid is still very thin. Stir gently and watch the changing consistency.

The jam become thicker and thicker. Stir to the bottom gently to avoid burning. Nevertheless, stir too frequent may delay the jam setting point.

The jam should start to jell after 30 minutes. Use a spoon to check the consistency. From each time of checking, you should able to see the jam become more jell and sticky.

The Jam test - It is very hard to tell is the boiling jam already jelled, now the prepared cold dish become very helpful. When the hot jam meet the cold plate, it should shows how it's look like after cooled. If the jam is still runny, continue boiling and test it again.

Ladle the finished jam into the clean jars.

The first stage of strawberry jam is finished. If you will eat it right away, then store in the fridge after cooled.

Second stage - Preserving: Place jam jars in water bath. After sterilize, the jam will able to keep for one year in a cool dark place. After opened, please store in your fridge.

If you don't have jars special for canning.  Store the bottled jam upside down can prevent air run into the jars and affect the original quality. Design your favorite labels with the canning day.  Now the flavor of strawberry season is sealed.

Mini Tips:

• Jam Test - Coz it is too hard to describe, so I decided to show you my video. Spoon the jam on the cold plate, you will see the jam is set.
• Use a stainless steel pot to boil the jam.
• Use glass jars and lids coated with plastic. The jam should not direct contact the metal lids, as the acid content will corrode the metal and become inedible.

Reference:

Historical Foods

The National Center for Home Food Preservation

UNL Food: Home Food Preservation

Canning Jars: The Ball Company , The J. WECK Company , Le Parfait

Visit my pervious post for organic farm information: 探訪有機農莊 - 美麗的士多啤梨園