Tuesday, 25 October 2016

Miso Stew Beef







Ingredients :
1kg short rib beef or beef brisket  cut into cubes
1 raddish/ daikon into cubes
1 carrot cut into cubes
1 big yellow onion cut into 8 pieces
3-4 garlic remove skin (no cutting)
1 thumb size ginger sliced into pieces
Some fresh swiss brown mushroom

Seasoning:
2 tbsp miso + 2tsp korean honey critron tea + 1tsp dried garlic mixed together
1 tbsp light soy sauce 
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp shao xing wine
1 tbsp rock sugar(roughly 5 or 6 pieces)
1/4 five spices powder
a dash of pepper
10 black pepper corn
1 star anise seed
2 bayleaf (optional)

2 tbsp oil

1 litre of water

1-2 tbsp of cornflour / potato flour + 2tbsp water

Method :
1. Sear beef brisket in the wok with 1 tbsp of oil. Once it is slightly brown, transfer into pressure cooker.

2. In the same wok, add another 1 tbsp of oil, put in the big onion, garlic, sliced ginger, peppercorn, bay leaf and star anise and fry till it is fragrance. Transfer them into the pressure cooker.

3 Add all the rest of seasoning into the pressure cooker except cornflour. Add water that cover the meat.

4. Close and lock the pressure cooker and set to cook for 15min.  After min 15, off the pressure cooker and  release the pressure.  Unlock, add raddish and carrots and mushroom into pressure cooker. Close and lock the pressure cooker and set to cook for another 25-30mins. 

5. Once it is cooked. Switch off pressure cooker. Release the pressure. Unlock,  add the cornflour water. Stir well. Serve with rice.

You may adjust the seasoning accordingly.

This is another way of cooking  Stew beef over stove. 







Saturday, 22 October 2016

Sundried Tomatoes and Black Olive Rye Wholemeal Bread




Ingredients:
200g Water * + 1 tbsp water
1 Egg approx 50g*
3/4 tsp Sea salt 
1 2/3 tbsp Dark brown sugar
1 1/2tbsp Olive oil 
240g Bread flour 
50g Wholemeal flour
40g Rye flour
1/2 tsp oregano

1 tsp instant yeast

1-2 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes
1-2 tbsp chopped black olive



*Note: total egg and water to be 250g. 

Method:
Directions using Bread Maker:
1)Place water, egg, sugar, salt, oil, breadflour, wholemeal flour and rye flour and herbs into the tin of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour.

2) Select "Soft Bread"  "Function 1" with "Light" crust. Select weight 750g.  Press start button to run the program. My BM indicated it take 2hrs 55mins for soft bread to complete the whole cycle.

When the dough started to form, I added 1tbsp water as I saw the dough seems a little dryer than usual. As rye and wholemeal flour require little more water.

3)After 2nd beep when the timer indicate 1:30, gently press start/stop function to pause the function. Remove dough from tin. Remove also the paddle. On a clean and dry board, sprinkle some bread flour(not too much). Place dough on the floured board. With oiled or floured hand, flatten and spread the dough just like you are working on a prata or pizza dough on the board.  Spread the chopped tomatoes and olive onto the dough. Roll up the dough and fold into half. Place the dough back into the BM tin without paddle. Press start/stop button to continue the process.

Note: if you do not wish to do this step, you can omit it by putting in chopped tomatoes and olive into the BM after the BM has started for approx 20min.  I do this sometime. 



4) When the loaf is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. an hour. Slice it and serve.







31Oct2016:
Today I made some changes in the sequence. Ingredients are the same. But I put in the sundried tomatoes and olive earlier. Instead of after 2nd beep, I changed to just before 1st beep at timing 2:30. The bread is a little light tomatoes colour and it is very flavourful. Full of tomatoes flavour...yum.





2Nov2016 Notes :
Adding the sundried tomatoes and olives before the 1st beep made very flavourful bread.The bread remain soft on the 1st 2days. But the bread become hard on the 3rd day. So, would suggest to spread the tomatoes and olive after 2nd beep if you are keeping the bread more than 2days. 

Thursday, 20 October 2016

Gula Melaka Purple Sweet Potato Bread




I was at a shopping mall on last sunday and a promoter of a departmental store was promoting the gula melaka sweet potato bread. I tried their sample. It tasted good. But it cost $8.90 for a very small loaf. It is too expensive. Because of this, I am inspired to bake a loaf myself. Came home google and hoping to find a recipe. However, unavailable.

By the way, gula melaka is coconut palm sugar.

Today, I used my golden sweet potato recipe to modify and baked this Gula Melaka Purple Sweet Potato Bread. It taste good. The aroma is super! I am happy with this bread.


Ingredients:
100g Cooked Purple Sweet Potato(room temperature)
130g Pandan water + 1 egg + 1 tablespoon water, I use the water from boiling the potato
3/4 tsp salt
40g Gula Melaka(Coconut Palm Sugar)
2 tbsp coconut oil
240g Bread flour
40g Wholemeal flour(can replace by bread flour)

1 Tsp Instant yeast

Soft bread mode 1 light crust 750g. 2.55hr

Method:
1. Cut sweet potato into small pieces 3x2x1cm..or any sizes (purpose is to enable potatoes to soften faster). Put water enough to cover the sweet potatoes and put also pandan leave and cook approx. 5-10min or until it is soft. Once potatoes is soften . Off fire. Remove potatoes from water. Keep the water. Use a fork to smash potatoes while it is hot. Set aside to cool.

2. Blend 1-2 pandan leaves with half cup water. Filter the fibre or squeeze out the pandan water and set aside. (This round I did not use pandan water. Instead, I use the water which I used to boil the sweet potato from above item 1)

3. In the BM baking tin, add egg, pandan water, mashed sweet potatoes, salt, gula melaka, coconut oil and flour in sequence. Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour.

4. Set "Soft Bread", "Light" crust, weight 750g. My bread maker take 2hrs 55min. In between the dough mixing process, I have added 1 tablespoon of water as I see it was a little dry. It could be I have used the water from boiling the sweet potatoes instead of pandan water. The water from boiling sweet potatoes is a little starchy.



When the BM timer beep at 1.30, paused the BM by pressing on start/stop button. Took out the dough and remove the paddle. Cut the dough into half and rolled them into 2 rolls and put them back into the BM. Press start/stop button to continue the function.



5. Though I used only 280g of flour,but it rise until the top almost touching the cover. When the bread is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. 1-2 hour. Slice it and serve.



This is the texture. It is light pink although I have used purple sweet potatoes. The aroma of the bread is very nice. And most important it tastes real good and it is quite chewy.😊

Enjoy baking!

You may like this too :
Golden-sweet-potato-bread
Soft-bread-with-rolled-oats
Pumpkin-bread
Homemade-pancake



Thursday, 22 September 2016

Golden Sweet Potato Bread






Ingredients:
55g Cooked Golden Sweet Potato(room temperature)
110g Coconut milk + 1 egg
65g Pandan Water/plain water
3/4 tsp salt
5 tsp Soft brown sugar
240g Bread flour
40g Wholemeal flour

1 Tsp Instant yeast

Soft bread mode 1 light crust  750g. 2.55hr

Method:
1. Cut sweet potato into small pieces 3x2x1cm..or any sizes (purpose is to enable potatoes to soften faster). Put water enough to cover the sweet potatoes and cook  approx. 5-10min or until it is soft. Once potatoes is soften . Off fire. Remove potatoes from water. Use a fork to smash potatoes while it is hot. Set aside to cool.

2. Blend  1-2 pandan leaves with half cup water. Filter the fibre or squeeze out the pandan water and set aside. 

3. In the BM baking tin, add coconut milk,egg, pandan water, mashed sweet potatoes, salt, sugar, and flour in sequence. Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour. 


4.  Set "Soft Bread", "Light" crust, weight 750g. My bread maker take 2hrs 55min. 


5. When the bread is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. 1-2 hour. Slice it and serve.

You may like to try this too :
Pumpkin Bread
Sundried Tomatoes Bread

Thursday, 15 September 2016

Soft Bread




Ingredients:
225gm water included 1egg
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 teaspoon sugar
1.5 tablespoon olive oil
280g bread flour
45g Wholemeal flour

1 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

Method:
Directions using Bread Maker:
1)Place water, egg,  salt, sugar, oil, breadflour and wholemeal into the tin of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour.

2) Select "Soft Bread"  "Function 1" with "Light" crust. Select weight 750g.  Press "Start". My BM soft bread cycle is 2 hrs 55 mins.

4)When the loaf is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. an hour. Slice it and serve. 



The above is the leftover bread from yesterday dinner and I used it to make pizza bread for breakfast .

Simple step:
1. Spread tomatoes paste over a slice of bread. Lay some ham on it. Sprinkle some mozzarella cheese.

2. Put into toaster oven for 10mins or when the cheese turn light brown as per the picture. Serve.





Tuesday, 13 September 2016

Sundried Tomatoes Loaf








The combination of the sundried tomatoes make this bread a very nice and perfect bread in my opinion. Daughter said " tastes like foccacia". You can just eat it on its own without any spread and it still taste good. The aroma of the bread is so good when it was baking  that one would feel like eating it immediately it is out from the BM😊. This is also why I like making bread at home. During the baking process, the whole house is full of the aroma of bread.

Although I have added Rye flour and Wholemeal flour, the bread is soft and light and chewy. The kind of bread that I like.😊 Next round I will add some herbs into the dough. 

Ingredients:
190gm water included 1egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
210g bread flour
20g Rye flour
30g Wholemeal flour

1 teaspoon instant yeast

Some chopped sundried tomatoes

Method:
Directions using Bread Maker:
1)Place water, egg,  salt, sugar, oil, breadflour, rye and wholemeal into the tin of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Make an indentation on the flour and add in the instant yeast. Then cover the yeast with some of the flour.

2) Select "Dough" function and let it knead for 15mins. After 15min press "Stop"  and hold for few seconds to stop the function.(My BM dough function complete cycle is 25min)

3) After 15min dough function, select "Soft Bread" "Function 1" with "Light" crust. Select weight 750g.  Press "Start". My BM soft bread cycle is 2hours 55mins.
While the BM is working the dough, use a chop stick place across the opening of BM and close the cover Leave the chopstick there for 15-20mins.  The cover will not close completely and it leave a gap to let out some heat.  You may omit this process. After 15-20mins, remove the chopstick, close the cover completely and let it function as usual.

4) Just before 2nd beep, approximate at 1 hrs 40min,  by now you would see the dough proof till quite high. Remove the dough and place on a floured working board. Gently spread the dough flat with your cleaned hand like you are making roti prata. Remember to oil your hand so that dough will not stick on your hands. Spread some chopped sundried tomatoes on the dough.  Quickly roll the dough and put it back into the BM without the paddle and let it continues to cook  until the loaf is ready.
Note: This process should not take longer than 2 mins. 
Note: Remove also the paddle. 

5)When the loaf is ready, there will be a continuous beep sound. Remove tin and shake out the loaf onto a rack and leave to cool. Appro. an hour. Slice it and serve. 


Monday, 12 September 2016

Traditional Mooncake




Pastry Ingredients:
175g Hong Kong Flour
45g 100%Groundnut oil
100g Golden Syrup
1/2 + 1/8 tsp Alkaline water

Eggwash :
1 eggyolk + 2tsp eggwhite + 1 tbsp water + 1/2 tsp groundnut oil. Mixed well and strained.

Filling :
550g Readymade  Lotus Paste
50g Melon Seed
See notes 4 for custard filling

Methods:
Pre heat oven 175°C
Lay parchment paper on a baking tray.


I am using 68g mould. Made 12 small mooncakes.


1. Place syrup in a bowl. Add alkaline water. Stir until combined. Add oil and continue to stir until combine. Set aside.

2. Sift flour into a big bowl. Add the syrup mixture into flour. Using a spatula combine them into a soft dough. Wrap the dough into a plastic bag or cling wrap and let it rest in fridge for at least an hour. I rest mine in fridge for half a day and sometime overnight.

3. Combine lotus paste  with melon seed. Mix them well combined. Divide the lotus paste filling into 47g. Shape into balls and set aside.

4. After the dough has rested, divide the dough into 21g. If you are new to mooncake making, you can use 25g. But the thinner the pastry is, the better the results.

5. Take a pastry ball and flatten it with your palm(please wear glove for hygiene purpose). Place a lotus ball in the middle of the flatten dough. Wrap the lotus filling inside the pastry and roll it into smooth ball. See notes 1.

6. Place the mooncake ball onto the baking tray laid with parchment paper. Use the mooncake mould and press over it gently, then release the mooncake on the tray.  Continue the rest until they are all done

7. Bake the mooncakes in 175°C for 10mins until you see the side is lightly brown as shown in the picture as follow. Remove from oven and let the mooncake cool down for 10min to half an hour. I prefer half hour.  See notes 2.



8. After 10mins or  half hour, eggwash the mooncake with a brush. Return to oven and continue to bake for another 10-15mins or until it is golden brown. See notes 3

Some notes:
1. As the dough is only 30% of the filling, so this will need a little patience to slowly move the pastry dough in order to cover the whole lotus filling. Patience will make perfect 😊 and you will be very happy when you see the results.  Making mooncake is a way of training your patience.😊😊😍. Wrapping process is important to prevent "elephant" leg after baked. Pay more attention and you will be rewarded with beautiful mooncakes.

2. I have done spraying water and without before first bake. However, I do not see any different. So, I will do without the water spraying for traditional mooncake. Unlike custard mooncake, spraying water is a MUST. Spraying some water onto mooncake before bake will prevent mooncake from cracking during baking due to the filling expanded.

3.  Be gentle when eggwash. For mooncake, thin eggwash is better than thick. So, for here it is NOT the more the merrier😊. Less is better😊.
This is the result of too generous with eggwash. The pattern was still very clear after 1st bake. However, 2nd bake after eggwash due to generousity of eggwash, the print of the pattern expanded and became blurr. No worries,  the taste of mooncake is not affected. It is only the look is ruin. 😐

4. I have tried wrapping a piece of homemade custard  into the lotus paste. This combination made very perfect mooncake and it tasted really good. The portion is lotus paste 32g and homemade custard 15g. This become the healthier version of salted eggyolk. For alternative and healthier choice 😊.

Enjoy! Share with me if you have use this recipe. I would be happy to see your mooncakes.😊

You may like to try this recipe too :
1. Snow-skin Mooncake