MASTERCHEF USA

From 15 to 14


mystery Box challenge

with 60minutes on the clock, contestants were challenged to make their best ever dish with the contents of the mystery box, having ingredients including: peaches cauliflower, beans, feta, white rice, Thai chili peppers, cream and eggs. 
Right  at the beginning, Jennifer was called out for serving a piece of meat that was completely raw. I found myself clenching my teeth as the judge embarrassed and called her out in front of everyone. Here are some of the judge's favourites:

alejandra served a Currie rack of lamb with peach chutney and cauliflower steak
adrienne's Farmer's market lamb, with cauliflower puree.
tracy's sweet and salty lamb and feta.

Elimination challenge : Dessert

Coffee...pineapple...or nuts. Mystery box winner Adrienne chooses the nuts. I would have preferred the coffee. The challenge proved to swallow most of the contestants. The only ones that sat well with the judges was the 6minute made moose by Christine and the oh so yummy espresso chocolate cake with coffee caramel sauce made by Tracy. A science experiment gone so wrong, caused Alvin to leave the competition.

Drum magazine : Layered Vanilla and Pecan Nut Cake

DRUM magazine Recipe

Layered Vanilla and Pecan Nut Cake

Preparation time: 15 min
Baking time: 35-45 min
serves: 8-12

Ingredients
CAKE
400 ml (1½ cups + 5 tsp) caster sugar
375 g soft butter
7 large eggs
750 ml (3 cups) self-raising flour
15 ml (1 tbsp) baking powder
2ml (½ tsp) salt
60 ml (¼ cup) milk
10 ml (2 tsp) vanilla essence
Butter icing
180 g butter or margarine
750 ml (3 cups) icing sugar, sifted
pinch of salt
20 ml (4 tsp) water
10 ml (2 tsp) vanilla essence
100 g (1 packet) chopped pecan
nuts to decorate

Method

1. CAKE Preheat the oven to 180°c and line two 20 cm cake tins with baking paper. in a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until it's light and fluffy. add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 2. sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the egg-butter mixture. Mix together. Fold in the milk and vanilla essence. 3. spoon into the prepared tins and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. let the cakes cool then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. 4. Icing Beat together butter, icing sugar, salt, water and vanilla essence. half each cake horizontally and spread icing in between and all over the cake. cover with nuts and serve in slices.


visit the DRUM website

Cooking With Siba

South African food television sensation "Cooking with Siba" graces Mnet's Mzantsi Magic channel in the year 2011. Paging through the drum magazine, I rush to the food section, excited to see which new recipe I am going to try out. My mouth already waters as I look at the pictures. So when I saw her television show, I rearranged my schedule. Each week a new South African celebrity joins chef Siba in the kitchen, as she teaches them a thing or two about cooking.

                               Siba putting icing on some cupcakes

MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA

Darren Purchese on MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA

Contestants were challenged as they broke up into teams and had to make a carnival or beach themed dessert. Genuise pastry chef Darren Purchese, whom is one of Autralias best pastry chefs, showed his magic as he demonstrated how he made his carnival themed dessert. His food philosophy is "to highlight and enhance beautiful, natural ingredients and products to provide the ultimate dining experience for the customer."

Here is another recipe of his.

Caramelised White Chocolate Mousse, Banana, Vanilla and Passion Fruit

Ingredients

caramalised vanilla white chocolate
2 vanilla pods, split
600g chopped chocovic jaina white chocolate
40g yoghurt powder

caramalised vanilla, bannana and white chocolate mousse
10g or (5) gelatine gold leaves
100g water
100g reserved banana flesh
250g caramelised vanilla & white chocolate
30g softened unsalted butter
400g thickened cream, whipped

caramalised vanilla and white chocolate velvet spray
350g caramelised vanilla & white chocolate
250g melted cocoa butter

Light coffee shortbread
375g plain flour
2g baking powder
2g salt
225g cubed unsalted butter
150g icing sugar, sieved
10g freshly ground coffee
90g whole eggs

White Rum gelatin
50g water
75g sugar syrup 100%
1.5g agar
175g white coconut rum

For the rest of the recipe Visit: MASTERCHEF RECIPES

lemon vanilla cup cakes

vanilla cupcakes

I  recently tried to make cupcakes for a friends birthday, but I didn't know what cupcake flavour she liked, so I decided to make simple Lemon Vanilla Cupcakes which most people would love. That is when I found this amazing recipe on http://www.joyofbaking.com/ and now I cant get enough of it, and cannot wait to share it with you guys <3

INGREDIENTS 

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup castor sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 zest of large lemon(outer yellow skin)
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup milk and a little more if too thick

METHOD

1. pre-heat oven to 180 C and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners
2. in a bowl using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.add the eggs one at a time , then add in the vanilla essence and beat for 2-3 min
3. in a seperate bowl sift and add the flour ,baking powder and salt then  at low speed add the flour mixture into the egg mixture and add in the milk
4. then make sure its all well mixed then fill in the muffin cups and place them into the oven for 15-20 min or till brown . make sure not to over cook them