Tahini Sauce

Put in a Blender:

• 1 cup tahini sesame seed paste - I prefer the paste made from light colored seeds
• 3/4 cup lukewarm water, or more for consistency
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
• 1/4 tsp salt, or more to taste
• 1/2 tsp roasted group cumin
• 2 tsp fresh parsley, minced (optional)

Pad Thai Sauce

Prepared Pad Thai sauce - From SheSimmers.com 

Author: Leela

Recipe type: Sauce, Condiment, Seasoning

Serves: 2 cups

Ingredients

• 180g fish sauce
• 226g palm sugar, finely chopped
• 60g brown sugar
• 150g tamarind pulp, prepared

Instructions

1. Put everything in a medium pot placed over medium heat. Stir constantly until the sugars have dissolved. This should take less than a minute. You don’t want to reduce or thicken the sauce; it’s already very concentrated and further reduction will result in a much lower yield than intended which leads to over-seasoned Pad Thai.
2. To keep the sauce from being overly reduced, chop your palm sugar very finely and do not use high heat.
3. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove the sauce from heat; allow to cool. Store in a glass jar and refrigerate or freeze.

http://shesimmers.com/2011/11/pad-thai-recipe-part-four-pad-thai.html

Peruvian Green Sauce

1 tbls parmesan cheese
2 fresh jalenpenos, include membrane and seeds
2 bunches of cilantro, fresh
1 medium/large clove of garlic
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon juice of lime
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste

Put everything in a Vitamix and go nuts. Lasts several weeks in fridge, but good luck keeping it around that long.

Ponzu Sauce

6 tbls lemon juice
2 tbls orang
2 tbls mirin
1.5 c soy sauce
0.5 c katsuobushi
2 x 3 inches of kombu

Marinate at least 1 day, then strain.

No-Bake Chocolate Chai Cheesecake - Take One

150 g sugar
16 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup oregon chai concentrate (cooked down to ~ 50g or 1/4 cup)
1 tsp good balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp cloves, ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
7 whole black peppercorns
3 allspice berries
1/2 tsp salt
12 oz heavy whipping cream


Chocolate graham cracker crust, prepared.


Results TBA.

Freddie Valentine Style Mustard Sauce

• 4 tablespoons butter
• dash Tabasco
• dash Worchestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey (add to taste)
• 1 tablespoon each of 4 types of mustard: whole grain, Dijon, classic yellow, 911 mustard (scotch bonnet in mustard)

Heat in a saucepan to well combined. Excellent on wings.

Orange Mascarpone Mousse

Ingredients

• 375g of mascarpone
• 160g of cream cheese
• 150g of creme fraiche(I used sour cream, since I don't like creme fraiche)
• 100g of caster sugar
• 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped (I just used some vanilla extract)
• 2 oranges, juice and zest (I used some frozen orange concentrate instead of juice)
• 2 lemons, juice and zest
• 60ml of orange liqueur, Grand Marnier, Patron or triple sec are all good
• 3 leaves of gelatine (the best powder measurement equivalent I could find would be about 1 T of knox gelatin, I have NOT tried this so attempt at your own peril)

Instuctions:

To prepare the mascarpone mousse, add all of the ingredients (except the Grand Marnier and gelatin) to a blender or food processor and start blending. Slowly add the Grand Marnier until incorporated. Bloom the gelatin in cold water, then add to a dry pan and melt over a low heat. Add to the blender and blitz to incorporate. Once the mascarpone mixture is smooth, pass through a sieve into a tray (16 x 24 x 2cm) and leave to set in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Recipe form Marcus Wareing 

Corn Tortillas (in grams)

280 g masa
345 g water (hot)
pinch salt (optional)


Stir to mix, then knead enough to make a play-dough consistency. 50 g balls make nice sized tortillas for tacos. Plenty for 2 people with leftovers for chilaquiles!

Swiss Buttercream

Makes about 10 cups, enough buttercream to generously frost an 8 inch layer cake with room to spare. When it comes to crumb coating and decorating a cake, nothing is worse than realizing you don’t have quite enough buttercream to finish the project. So this recipe errs on the side of plenty. You can freeze any extra buttercream for up to six months and pull it out in a pinch to frost cupcakes or use as a cookie filling.

10 oz egg whites (it’s okay to go a tad over)
10 oz sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
the scrapings from 1 vanilla bean
2 pounds unsalted butter, cut into 2” chunks and softened to a spreadable state

Combine the egg whites, sugar, salt, and vanilla bean together in an clean bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of water and turn the heat on medium low. You don’t need the water to even simmer, you just want it hot enough to steam, since steam is what actually heats the whites.

Whisk frequently to prevent an egg white omelet forming on the sides, but continual mixing isn’t necessary. Aim to get the mixture to at least a 145° for food safety reasons, but reaching 150° would make for a nice margin of error. If your egg whites are at room temperature, this won’t take very long, maybe just a few minutes. Whites straight from the fridge will take longer.

When the mixture is sufficiently hot, remove from the heat and use the whisk attachment to whip on medium high speed until the mixture has doubled in volume and turned snowy white. Continue whipping until the meringue is cool. Use your hands to feel the bowl itself, rather than simply testing the temperature of the meringue. You want it to feel perfectly cool to the touch with no trace of warmth. Note: if you are using a glass or ceramic bowl, even if the meringue has cooled, the bowl itself may still be quite warm and continue conducting heat into the buttercream over time. If you are using a glass or ceramic bowl, transfer the meringue to a new bowl before proceeding or continue mixing until the bowl itself is cool.

Turn the mixer down to medium-low and begin adding in the butter, one chunk at a time. If you didn’t let your meringue cool enough, this is when you’ll really regret it. By the time you’ve added all the butter, you may need to scrape down the bowl to fully incorporate any butter or meringue that’s stuck at the sides.

Finally, splash in some vanilla extract or what have you. Just keep adding a 1/4 teaspoon at a time until it suits your tastes.

The buttercream freezes beautifully. To use frozen buttercream, melt about two thirds and put that and the frozen portion in an electric mixer, and whip until fluffy, you might need to melt a bit more if it curdles, or if it's too melty, take some out freeze it again and then whip it in.

Recipe from Bravetart

Blitz Dough

This is my go-to dough whenever I want flaky flaky flaky. Feel free to cut the recipe in half, but I always make it in big batches so I can stash some in the freezer to pull out on a lazy day.

This recipe makes enough dough for two double crusted pies.

16 ounces flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp sugar
16 ounces cold butter, cubed
10 ounces cold water (possibly more or less)

Extra flour for rolling

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and sugar. Add in the cubed butter and use your fingers to break up the stuck-together pieces. Smash the butter cubes between your fingers to create flaky bits of butter. You don’t need to make them small, or crazy thin, or mush them into the flour. All you have to do is make sure you’ve flattened all the butter cubes.

Now, add in the water a little at a time and use a fork (or your fingers) to gently stir, until a loose ball of dough forms. You may not need all of the water, or you may need a touch more. Just use enough until it comes together in a shaggy ball. Knead it very lightly, just once or twice until it all holds together, more or less.

This dough should be pretty shaggy, not smooth, and generally messy looking.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll it into a roughly rectangular shape, about an inch thick. Now fold it into thirds, the way you’d fold a business letter. Wrap this chunk of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, take the dough out and roll it into another rectangle, but this time about a 1/2” thick. Fold it into thirds again, then fold that third in half. Pat it out with the pin or with your hands until it’s about 2” thick; refrigerate another 15 minutes.

Roll it out one more time, fold into thirds, wrap and refrigerate for another 15 minutes. Or as long as you like, even so long as two days.

If you’re ready to roll it out, dust the counter lightly with flour and set the block of dough out, dusting it with flour too. Roll in all directions, using good “follow through” so the dough does not become too thick around the edges. Check the dough very regularly to make sure it’s not sticking, lift and dust with flour underneath periodically.

Recipe from Bravetart