Holiday Macaron with Exotic Flavour

Wohooo summer is finally here (or not). The weather is really nothing to be excited about, we probably get 1 sunny day a week and it is grey, rain, wind and more rain. The fruits prices just went rocket high since most of the producer of cerise and mirabelle (local produce) are having bad harvest because of the rain.

Anyway, to kick the blues away and to participate in the MacAttack for this month. As the theme is Holiday Macaron, I just have to make myself feel better and imagine myself back on my tropical island home. Let me introduce you the exotic kick in macaron - Pomegranate, Kaffir Lime and Coconut Ganache. In case you have never heard of kaffir lime, it is variety of lime usually found and used in south and south east asia. It has rough and bumpy skin, the flavour is somehow sublime - a less acid taste than green lime with a light bitter note at the end.

The blend of the flavour is just lovely, the acid kick from the kaffir lime and pomegranate is soften up with the flavour of the coconut and the creamy texture of the ganache. Needlessness to say, it wasn't long until the plate was empty

Some photos down the memory lane, can't wait to get back again...

The Ferringhi Beach, Penang, Malaysia

 Georgetown, UNESCO Heritage area, Penang, Malaysia

 

Air Itam, market near where my parents' home

 Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (aka the Blue Mansion), Penang

 

Best noodle for breakfast in town, Air Itam, Penang

 Exotic fruits in the market

So let's start baking

For the shell (about 24 shells of 3 cm)
- 1 egg whites (40g) - Room temperature
- 30g castor sugar

- 50g icing sugar
- 25g almond meal
- 5g dried coconut flakes, more to sprinkle
- 1/4 teaspoon of white powder food colouring
- some marigold flower petal (optional)




1. Mix almond meal, coconut flakes, food colouring and icing sugar together and blend it up in the blender. Sift then set aside.

2. Using electric beater, beat egg white until foamy, then add in half of the castor sugar, continue until the egg white reaches soft peak then add in the rest and beat until stiff peak.

3. Add the dry ingredient to the meringue. Start folding each batter in each bowl until a smooth shiny batter is obtain. The batter should flow down smoothly and formed a ribbon when it's ready.

4. For details and FAQ on folding please refer to this post http://macaron-fetish.blogspot.fr/2010/02/basic-macaron-recipe.html

5. Prepare your piping bag and block the tip. Fill it up. Start piping the batter. Sprinkle some coconut flakes or flower petals over the shells if you like.

6. Preheat oven to 150 C while the macaron is resting. Bake for 12-14 minutes and let the macaron shells cool down before removing them.

7. Match up the shells by size and get ready to prepare the filling.

 

For the filling


- 1/2 pomergrante (de pulp just keep the fruit in grains)
-  juice of 1 kaffir lime
- 1 tablespoon of coconut flakes
- 50g good quality white chocolate (valrhona)- chopped
- 25g fresh cream / soya cream

1. In a pot, fill it up with some water and place white chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Bring the water to boil and place the bowl of chocolate on top to melt it.

2. Mean while, heat up the cream in another pot so that it is warm.

3. When the chocolate is melted, pour the warm cream over, stir to mix well.

4. Add in kaffir lime juice and coconut flakes. Stir until a smooth consistence ganache is obtained.

5. Fill one of the macaron shell with chocolate ganache, place 3-4 pomegranate grains over, place a tiny drop of chocolate on another shell so that the shell is able to stick to the pomegranate grains.

6. It is best eating the same evening or next day as the moisture from fresh pomegranate might soften the shells.

Enjoy!!!

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Tom Yum Macaron

Hello, just thought to share this savoury macaron with you guys for the coming summer day gatherings.

Savoury macaron is very particular, for me it's either love it or hate it. If you love sweet and savoury combination you probably will find this interesting.

For this particular post, I am going to share a recipe from one of my book - Macaron Fetish  - the Luxury Collection. These are going to be a macaron with some exotic ingredients - Tom Yum macaron.

For the readers who aren't familiar with asian food, Tom Yum is a sour and spicy soup. It is one of the signature dish of Thailand. The key ingredients to make this soup are kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, roasted chili paste and lime juice. The soup is usually named 'Tom Yum Gong" which basically means Prawn Tom Yum. It also comes in a vegetarian version which I often cook at home with oyster mushrooms, button mushrooms, inoki mushrooms and some veggies.

For this recipe the macarons are going to be filled with tofu. Hope you like it. Enjoy


For the shells (makes about 24 shells of 3 cm)
- 1 egg whites (40g) - Room temperatured
- 30g castor sugar

- 50g icing sugar
- 30g almond meal
- 1/4 teaspoon of powder food colouring


1. Mix almond meal, food colouring and icing sugar together and blend it up in the blender. Sift then set aside.

2. Using electric beater, beat egg white until foamy, then add in half of the castor sugar, continue until the egg white reaches soft peak then add in the rest and beat until stiff peak.

3. Add the dry ingredient to the meringue. Start folding each batter in each bowl until a smooth shiny batter is obtain. The batter should flow down smoothly and formed a ribbon when it's ready.






4. For details and FAQ on folding please refer to this post http://macaron-fetish.blogspot.fr/2010/02/basic-macaron-recipe.html



5. Prepare your piping bag and block the tip. Fill it up. Start piping the batter.

6. Preheat oven to 150 C while the macaron is resting. Bake for 12-14 minutes and let the macaron shells cool down before removing them.

7. Match up the shells by size and get ready to prepare the filling.




Tom Yum Tofu Filling

- 60g extra firm organic tofu
- 2 tablespoon coconut milk
- 2 teaspoon of tom yum paste (found in asian grocer)
- few spring of coriander leaves
- 1 teaspoon of lime juice
- salt to taste

1. Drain tofu and pat dry it with paper towel. Chop and crush it up with a folk against a sieve to squeeze out any excessive water in the tofu.

2. Put tofu in food blender along with other ingredients;

3. Mix it up to obtain a smooth creamy paste;

4. Fill the macaron shells 1-2 hour before serving to prevent the shells from soften up and being humidified from the filling.

Happy Easter Macarons

The month of March has certainly been soooo crazy and I didn't feel that I had done anything much except many trips to the vet.

One of my bunny old papy Nestor had a very nasty eye infection. he had always have runny left eye and this time the vet recommended an x-ray to make sure there is no teeth problem that cause the runny eye. Everything came out perfect so they did a culture test on his pus. While waiting for the result, Nestor's eye got worst and an ulcer was developed in his cornea. He was in pain and thus being treating with intensive drops and antibiotics without the analyse result. A week later his eye got worst and the result came back showing that he has the worst form of bacteria. The bacteria was eating up his cornea and he was in need of urgent and a very risky surgery to remove his eye or else it might burst and he could die. All this happen just right before our trip to London to visit my sister in law. Finally Nestor pulled through the surgery and we got him back the night before we left. Thanks to all my Facebook friends and family for the emotional and financial support and thanks to my in laws who took good care of him and all other bunnies while we were gone, Nestor is now recovering and doing well.

This batch of macarons are actually for thanking the vets and the team member who had done an excellent job for our little Nestor.

So, enough for the blah blah. Get back to the topic. Easter had become one of my favourite time since I became BUNNY CRAZY. I get excited seeing bunny decoration and just can't never have enough!! Sadly each year many baby bunnies are bought and offered as gift and most of them are abandoned after a few months. So I would let to take this opportunity to urge everyone to spread the words to people around them about this. Bunny can live up to 10 years and more, required regular exercise outside the cage, quality food and hays, and they required a lot care to keep they healthy and happy. So you are not prepare for 10 years commitment then - MAKE YOURS CHOCOLATE or Macaron !! :)

May I present you the Easter Macaron - Egg, Chick and Bunny




To make this batch I use
- 2 egg whites (80g)
- 60g castor sugar

- 100g icing sugar
- 60g almond meal

You will need 4 piping bags and, one nozzle with tiny head, 3 x 10 mm nozzles, toothpick and icing pen, some sugar decoration if you wish.

1. Mix almond meal and icing sugar together and blend it up in the blender. Sift then set aside.

2. Using electric beater, beat egg white until foamy, then add in half of the castor sugar, continue until the egg white reaches soft peak then add in the rest and beat until stiff peak.

3. Fold the dry ingredient to the meringue until everything is ROUGHLY combine. Seperate the batter in to 3 seperate bowls. Keep 1 tablespoon of mixture in a tiny bowl for the decoration.

4. One bowl will be left uncoloured, while the other 2 will be added in green and yellow. colouring. Start folding each batter in each bowl until a smooth shiny batter is obtain. The batter should flow down smoothly and formed a ribbon when it's ready.

5. Prepare your piping bag and block the tip. Fill in each piping bag. Start piping the batter in to oval shape.

6. For the chick macaron I simply pipe out some batter on the side and use chopstick to dip on each sides of the piped oval to create the wings.

7. For the bunny I place the nozzle with tiny head over the 10 mm to pipe the ear.I then place the sugar heard and sugar pearl on the piped shell.

8. For the egg macaron, add in orange colouring in the one tablespoon batter that was scooped out earlier, mix well and using a tooth pick, carefully dip in the batter then over the egg to 'draw' the decoration.

9. Preheat oven to 150 C while the macaron is resting. Bake for 12 minutes and let the macaron shells cool down before removing them.

10. Using the icing pen, draw the eyes and viola !






For the filling I just make simple chocolate ganache with milk chocolate and dark chocolate.

I hope that you enjoy the post and the macaron. Have a great Easter :)