Soft sponge cake

This fluffy lovely is done in 15 min. Here goes:

3 large eggs

200g optima flour 

50ml milk

1tsp vanilla essence

50g melted butter

Preheat oven to 170C (yes kids this is gonna be a quick one). In a mixing bowl, add everything except the butter. Mix at high speed for about 10 min. Then, fold in the cooled melted butter. But it all in a cake tray and bake for approx 20min. 

Varieties:

I marbled the cake by separating the mixture into 2 then adding 1tbsp chocolate emulco into one half before pouring in the batter in an alternating fashion. You can change chocolate to any berry purée. That's it!

Shix cooks: cheesy baked mussels

So this awesome dish is super fast but for someone with allergies, it's the worst lol. 

Ingredients:

500g mussels

50g butter

2 shallots

3 tbsp flour

1/2 cup milk 

1/4 cup cheese

Method:

In a pot, place 1.5 cups water and the cleaned mussels. 

Cover and boil till the mussels open up. About 15 mins. 

In a pan, melt the butter and add in the chopped shallot. 

Mix the flour in to make a roux before adding the milk and cheese. If the consistency is too thick, add more milk. Turn off heat. 

Once mussels are cooked, open it up. Fill the mussel with the cheese roux and bake at 200 deg for 15 min. 

Eat!

Shix cooks: Turmeric Thai-style chicken

I'm trying to come up with something easy and interesting to fill up my leftover pitas so here it is:

Turmeric thai-styled chicken

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 15 min

500g chicken breast, cut into chunks

1 piece Tamarind slice 

4 pieces calamansi/lime leaves

Juice from 4 calamansi 

Finely ground paste:

2 cm ginger

10 cloves shallots

4 cloves garlic 

2 stalks lemongrass

8 birds eye chilli (add more or less depending on how much heat you want)

Oil to fry

Salt

Sugar

Optional: a handful of cherry tomatoes

In a wok, heat up about 2 tbsp of oil and fry the paste. About 3 mins in, add in the tamarind and leaves. Fry till fragrant. Then, add in chicken chunks and continue stirring till it looks cooked. Add in the tomatoes, juice then salt and sugar to taste.  Once you're happy with the product, turn off the heat and you're ready to eat! Serve with rice or pita/tortilla /flat bread

I need to tell you that I got some of the herbs and spices from a community garden! 

Check out my haul:

See you soon!