Winter meals 3

I love making my own flat bread. It taste so fresh and easy to bake too! I saw on TV that people in Turkey and Greece, loves to have hummus together with this flatbread. So I decided to give it a go. But that is not without any hurdles....

Hurdle 1: Eric and his sis dislikes chick peas! Let alone eating hummus! =( 

So I must make it yummy or else I won't be able to make it again >_<

Hurdle 2: I didn't have any good hummus recipes. So off to Mr Google. Found this recipe that uses peanut butter instead of the sesame paste. The reviews given were good, so I gave it a try.

Hurdle 3:In order to let Eric appreciate and likes the hummus I'm about to feed him, it will be good to let him know more about how his food was made. So I got him to help me out in the kitchen. That's not an easy task 'inviting' the boss to get off the computer screen and pick up the stick blender. Haha. Anyhow, Eric helped me to blend the chick peas n garlic into paste, and he seasoned the paste with salt, fresh limes. In the end, this was his master piece!

Oh it's so yummy! Like what many people commended online n in TV, hummus should be eaten warm! Not cold. And indeed the flavour were just right with the flat bread n lamb mince. 

And you know what, this hummus recipes is a keeper! Both Eric n his sis loves it! =D (yay! I can make this again!)

The hummus recipe is from http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/peanut-butter-hummus.

For my lamb mince, my favourite seasoning are cumin, coriander seeds and black pepper. This gives seasoning like that of Northern Chinese and middle eastern crusine flavour. 

Roast coriander seeds n whole black pepper in frying pan. When hot n fragrant, crushed them in motar n pestle with a pinch of coarse sea salt. Pound them into fine powder. Add cumin powder to the mix. Marinate the lamb with these spice seasoning. I never use measuring spoons for the spices, maybe a pinch each? 

In hot frying pan, panfry the marinated mince lamb with some oil. When 3/4 cooked, take it out. Add in onions, carrots n other veges you like into the frypan n fry till cooked. When almost done, add back the half-cooked lamb. Add some water if too dry n create some sauce. Season to taste if needed. 

Lamb taste best when served hot.

Enjoy!

Kcan

Flat bread recipe

This is the recipe for the flat bread, taken from the recent summer series of Coles magazine.

I made this in the grill, and am amazed with the balloon-ing of the dough as it cooked. 

Must keep an eye on it, so as it will not get burnt. A food timer is useful to remind you of the baking time. 

As a personal preference, I prefer not to roll the dough too thin, so as to have a more 'Bready' soft bread. If you like the thin crispy like flat bread, roll out the dough thinly. Keep the cooked bread in a foil lid to keep warm n also to allow the moisture to softens the bread. I find very thin bread can be hard n chewy if you are just eating it plain. 

This bread goes well with curry or saucy dish.

Enjoy! And let me know how it went!

Kcan

Day of baking

It's a warm day today, a good relief from the many days of rain and clouds. Needed the sunshine to dry the accumulating laundry from last week.

With this warmth, why not do some dough proofing!

I recently found out that bread dough can be frozen in freezer, for future baking needs. Which means I can pre-made the flat bread dough, let it rise once, separate it into the portions, and then individually wrapped in glad wrap and freeze in the freezer. When I want to use it I took the amount I need a few hrs ahead and defrost on room temperature ( or overnight in fridge), let it rise and tada! I can bake a fresh bread again in no time! And I loves this flat bread recipe as I can quickly bake it on the grill for 45 seconds on each side and it's done! Wow! Even quicker than preheating the oven!

And while I was at it, I make some quick scones, so that I can use up the fresh cream I bought last week. 

Now, all ready for baking.

Scones with fig jam and cream. 

Yum.

Hope you have a gd day!

Kcan

Flat bread

I recalled seeing a recipe on making flat bread on the Coles magazine recently and wanted to make it.

Here it is! I was so amazed that it will puff up like a balloon itself!

Yummy! Just nice to have it with the left over curry.

Kcan

Bready is working again!

For many months, our dear Bready is out of action, because we lost the kneading blade during our renovation! >_<

It took us many months to find it and later contemplating whether to replace it, or buy online or.....

So in the end, we finally got a replacement blade before Christmas. However, lazy me did not feel like baking (weather so hot!), so Bready had a long holiday till, Yesterday!

Coming back from work, it was already 5pm. I had the sudden urge to make pizza with the left over chicken breast from the night before dinner. So I got Bready out from storage and started measuring the four, water, salt....

As time is tight, I put the bowl of dough into my Tomato (car) to help speed up the rising process. (The car was quite warm from being in the sun). And it works! In 25 mins,it had double in size! Yay!

The 'pizza' that I made. The dishes last night were a weird combinations. Noodles, stir fry sweet potato leaves, and stir fry lettuce as the sides, apple soup as the main (prepared by MIL), and pizza.

Thank you Bready for giving us freshly made breads again!

Kcan 

Bush dance

YeeeeeHaaa!

It was the bush dance night for our church last night. It was a way people can come and gather and have fun together, plus inviting their friends to church events.

We did invite Eric's sis n aunt, but sadly they did not make it. Non the less, so many people turned up! 'About 200 people turned up!' , I heard from today's church service.
We had lots of food, live band music and of course many children n adults dressed up in their cowboy n dance girl attire.
Eric n I made a big pot of pumpkin soup n home-made Bready bread. (White n whole meal) With the multicultural mix of people at church, we had lots of food from fried rice-es ( few families cooked them), stews, chicken wings, pasta bake, salads, pies, steam buns, fried dumplings, sushi, soups (we are the only one making soup), curries, pizzas, chilli pot (!!), (take a deep breathe), and desserts such as cakes, ice cream puffs, wan-wan biscuits, more chocolate cakes, ice creams!
Haha, we had so much food left overs despite record number of people attending.

Just in case you are wondering why I can list out the food there yesterday.... Well, I was standing at the food table the whole night, organizing and arranging the various yummy food when people arrive to the event. It's a bring-a-dish event. Some Chinese brought their home cook chicken,  which consist of chicken wings with lots (and I mean LOTS!) of dried chili n Sichuan pepper. Oh my gosh, I was SO afraid that the kiddies there may mistaken them as red capsicum and put it in their plates. And by the end of the day when I get to queue up for my food, there were hardly any chicken wings left but a whole pot of dried chillies. Haha. I must say, the flavor was very yummy. But maybe not for a family event like yesterday where there were so many children around.

I hope the church will sent us the photos taken that day in the coming week. Will update you all with photos when I get them.

Eric is going back to uni tomorrow. Here comes another semester.

Kcan

Black sesame bread loaf

The bread basket  rack was empty again. Thinking what kind of bread should I bake this time, I decided to make use of the well expired black sesame powder belonging to my MIL, sitting in the fridge.

I've been trying out with making white loaf from Happy Home Baking. And this recipe has turned out quite well each time. So I decided to modify it with adding in Sesame powder. (more nutritious than just pure white bread)

This is the white bread recipe, as adapted from Happy Home Baking. I had added and do some changes to the ingredients and methods to modify it to a Sesame bread for baking in my bread maker.

Black Sesame Bread loaf

Ingredients
(makes one 600g loaf)

550g bread flour
50g Black Sesame powder
2 teaspoon instant yeast
2 tablespoon caster sugar
1.5 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons milk powder
420ml water 
20g butter, soften at room temperature
Method: (I used a bread maker to mix the ingredients and make into a dough) If you don't have a bread machine, READ THE 2ND PART OF THE STEPS)

1. Add all the ingredients, except the butter, into the bread machine mixing bowl, as according to the steps of adding wet/dry ingredients. Separate the yeast, away from the sugar and salt.
2. Mix the ingredients in the bread maker dough function for about 5-10 mins till all the ingredients all combined to form a non-sticking dough.
3. Add in the butter, and continue to use the dough function to knead it for about 30-40 mins. This will incorporate the butter into the dough. 
4. At the end of the kneading cycle, the dough will no longer sticks to the side of the bowl, and becomes smooth and elastic. To know if the dough is well kneaded through, do a window pane test.
5. Window Pane test: Pinch a small piece of the dough, pull and stretch it. It should be elastic, and can be pulled away into a thin membrane without tearing/breaking apart. If it is, well done! The dough is now ready for proofing.
6. Take the dough out of the bread machine mixing bowl and placed into a lightly greased (with vegetable oil) mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let proof in room temperature (around 28 to 30 degC) for about one hour, or until double in bulk. (In the cold winter now, I lightly warm the oven to around 40 degC and let it proof in there)
7. Remove the dough from the bowl and give a few light kneading to press out the gas in the dough. (this will stop having big gas holes in the bread when baked) Smooth into round, cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap and let it rest for another 15-20mins.
8. Roll the dough into a rectangle on a flat surface. Roll it up Swiss-roll style into a log. Remove the kneading blade in the bread maker mixing bowl. Place the log of dough, seam side down, into the bread maker mixing bowl. 
9. Now cover with damp cloth or cling wrap and leave the dough to proof for the second time for about 40 ~ 50mins, or until double in size, or when the dough has almost reached the rim of the tin.
10. Pop the whole bread maker mixing bowl into the bread maker. Set the bread maker into baking mode. Bake for 50 mins.  Remove from bread maker, unmold immediately and let cool completely before slicing.

Kneading by hand.

1. Mix milk and water.
2. Stir bread flour, caster sugar, salt, and instant yeast in a mixing bowl.
3. Add in milk mixture. Mix the ingredients with hand and slowly form into a dough.
4. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Knead until the dough no longer sticks to your hand, becomes smooth and elastic. This should take about 20 mins. Do the window pane test: pinch a small piece of the dough, pull and stretch it. It should be elastic, and can be pulled away into a thin membrane without tearing/breaking apart. Wrap the butter in the dough and continue to knead until the butter fully incorporates into the dough.
5. Place dough in a lightly greased (with vegetable oil) mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let proof in room temperature (around 28 to 30 degC) for about one hour, or until double in bulk. (In the cold winter now, I lightly warm the oven to around 40 degC and let it proof in there)
6. Remove the dough from the bowl and give a few light kneading to press out the gas in the dough. (this will stop having big gas holes in the bread when baked) Smooth into round, cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap and let it rest for another 15-20mins.
7. Roll the dough into a rectangle on a flat surface. Roll it up Swiss-roll style into a log. Place the log of dough, seam side down, into a well greased pullman tin (or a bread loaf tin).
8. Now cover with damp cloth or cling wrap and leave the dough to proof for the second time for about 40 ~ 50mins, or until double in size, or when the dough has almost reached the rim of the tin.
9. Baked in pre-heated oven at 180 degC for 30-35 mins or until golden brown.  Remove from owen, unmold immediately and let cool completely before slicing.

When the bread had cooled down, I like to wrap it in a tea towel to keep it fresh. But If you are in a humid area, I think it will be best to keep it in an air tight container. Home make bread can last for 3 days, though it is best eaten on the day of making. They tend to gets dryer as time goes by too.

Serve with butter and a good cup of coffee. Yum!

Eric and I had lunch that afternoon with toast with Egg n Onion Omelette. Delicious~!

Happy baking!

kcan 

From the oven

During the days which I am sick of cleaning up the place, I switch instead to things which I love. Baking. 

Well, this is something which I had grew to liking only this year, as I hated the cleaning up from baking, unlike cooking. Anyhow, sister Grace had bought this big bag of bread flour from Costco. So I guess I had to bake something out from it, seeing no one does any baking here. 

Baking bread was always something I fear, for I knew how bread will turn out if not done properly. Rock hard, dry, dense and some can be so tough that it can bounce! haha. Still had vague memories of my mum baking bread back in Singapore. Oh how unfortunate lucky honoured to be the guinea pigs to tough rock hard saussage rolls. LOL. Using yeast in baking was always something of a mystery to me. How much yeast to add, how long do I leave the dough to proof, how to make the bread soft.... 

These were all questions which I had. And last of all, the kneading. I hate having stickiness mess all over my fingers!

Eric bought a bread making machine last year when we were in Canberra. That was after having the privilege of having homemade fresh bread during our honeymoon at one of the destination. And ever since then, we missed the taste of freshly toasted bread in the morning. But making bread on our own is not easy. It does not meant that you now just chuck everything into the bread maker, wait 3 hrs and Tada! you have a bread. 

Nonono. *wave finger*

So many mornings we woke up in the cold morning frost in Canberra, only to find out that the dough was not properly mixed or that the dough did not rise, or it had over proofed and  sticks onto the lid. The worst disaster was when Eric miscalculated the measurement for making a raisin toast. Ended up the dough proof too high, blocking the nut drop box, where the raisins were kept. And so the raisins could not drop into the dough and it melted all around the box when it baked. >_<

So this year, I wanted to learn from the Masters!

And I went to Mr Google again. And I'm happy to have found a good teacher. Her blog is HappyHomeBaking.

Here's what I've started making:

Homemade Char Siew Bao (baked)

My little babies baking in the oven.

 All ready to cool down on the rack.
Sorry no pictures of the inside, as it was all gone in minutes! >_<

Another of my favourite. Cinnamon Scrolls!
YUMMM.

 Cinnamon + sugar+ butter = YUMMY!

 I've always wanted to bake a loaf bread.
As the recipes allows me to make a nice soft textured bread, I've decided to venture out into making something of a loaf shape. Can last longer too. haha.

My Macha Redbean loaf.

 It's green! I used the left over Red bean from ages ago. It turns out good. =)

The problem with baking soft fluffy bread, was time. It takes 4 hrs from starting to end. Needing to proof a few times for an hr at times each. There was a few times I had to stay up late at night to wait for the bread to finish baking and then leave it out to cool before wrapping it in a tea towel. The winter cold is not helping too, as it will take longer for the dough to proof. So I had set up a warm spot in the oven to proof my dough. And there were so many times I had silly-ly walk way while re-heating the oven, only to forgot the time and had to run rush back and turn off the oven, open the door, cool the dough out... so as not to kill the yeast. >_<

Thank you Happy home baking for the wonderful recipes. Now a days, I'll go to her blog to look at recipes to bake. =)

Can't wait for more yummy bread for breakfast!

kcan