Sambal Ikan Bilis Buns ( using Tangzhong Method)

I'm not happy this week photos.  Note the out of focus, bad lighting photos-yes, three almost similar photos up there. The buns are relatively good, despite the after-baked meh look. Soft. They are pillowy-soft. And who can say no to sambal ikan bilis? Sweet, salty and spicy. Reminds me times I had in Bintulu where Gardenia's Ikan Bilis bun were the most sought-after souvenirs from the Peninsular. I never bought one for my colleagues though. Sorry guys, I couldn't find them. Which part of KLIA is selling it again? Anyway, most of the recipes I googled call for bread improver. I couldn't find a halal one here, so I pursued with the Tangzhong method. Result as discussed above. Pillowy-soft. I believe everyone is already familiar with this method. No further explanation needed. This will be my go-to sambal ikan bilis bun. Might have to repair the looks somehow. 

Sambal Ikan Bilis Buns. 

Soft Buns recipe is taken from Kokken69's Yukone Method Sweet Soft Buns

Water Roux

50g Bread Flour 

75g Boiling water 

Mix water roux ingredients together in a bowl. 

Cover bowl with cling wrap and store in fridge for 12 hours.

Bread Dough

6g Active Dry East 

160g Bread Flour 

40g Plain Flour 

50g Sugar 

2g Salt

50g Water 

1 Egg 

40g Butter 

In a mixer fitted with a bread hook, add flour, yeast, sugar, egg and water. Start mixing at slow speed for 2 mins. Add salt and continue to knead until dough lifts from the wall of the mixing bowl. 

Add water roux mix and continue to knead for 3 mins. (speed 2)

Add butter and increasing kneading speed to speed 4.

Continue kneading for 15 mins on speed 4 until dough is no longer sticky and does not break when pulled to perform window test. 

Place dough in a slightly oiled bowl. Cover with cling wrap and leave to proof in a warm area for 45mins.

With lightly floured hands and table top, knead (6) to form a smooth round ball. Divide dough into 12 balls – about 40g each.

Roll each small ball into a round ball and leave to proof for 10mins.

Flatten each ball and roll out to a circle with a rolling pin. Place sambal ikan bilis filling in the center of the dough and wrap and seal the edges of the dough to form a ball. 

Leave to proof for 1 hour. 

Brush with egg white and decorate.

Bake at 185C for 8-10mins until brown.

Leave to cool.

Fig Galette

Dear A, 

The Turkish figs are back. They show up only once or twice a year as far as I can remember. My dream ritual of picking it myself-choose one, pretend to smell, and put it in basket-is so not going to happen here. Yes, they're imported, and they come in box, which I bought two. I have eight plump and purplish figs in my fridge, lie idling for almost a week. Hubs even made a complaint of having too many fruits in the fridge. Well, I’m hopeless when it comes to beautiful produce. I'm a whatever-nice-in-the-grocery hoarder. I buy and store them in my fridge/pantry and wait for the right moment to use it a.k.a near expiry date. Get some tips to make them last longer here. Anyway, I have nothing sprang on my mind for these figs. I turned them into tart few years ago, blogged, and that's about it. I think I prefer to have them as it is nowadays. Couple it with my oatmeals, or slice them up and threw it in my salad. Our house was due for HIP (House Improvement Project) inspection and some electrical work that day, and I wanted the house to smell nice when the guys come. Not the right guest but why not. I need something quick, and a galette is perfect. I'd like to think galette as a free-form of tart/pie. It's less tedious obviously, provided that the dough you're working with is not temperamental. The hot breeze of September would give me no help if I were to stick with my go-to pastry recipe. So I searched for a new one. And ended up with Deb’s site-Blueberry Galette recipe. I choose hers for its sour cream call (she used ricotta, but suggested to subs with yogurt/sour cream). I have about half tub of it, left from my last use. Her recipe is quick and that's one thing I love about it. Very easy to 'handle'. I froze it for merely 10 mins and it harden. Had to left it on my counter while searching for my rolling pin. Adam used it for his kitchen-play last week and didn’t put it back in the drawer. I searched and searched as the hot ambiance started to soften up my dough. I gave up and used a cup instead. And it worked. The dough was nearly back into its initial state, but it didn't stick on my fingers. Great. We have an hour of no fans, no wifi, no TV, etc. Yes, they shut down the main power off. As they did their job, I sat on my dining table, guiding Adam on his English exercise, while working out a piece of galette. Adam loves the crust but not so much on the filling. He's excited for the blueberries tho-I threw in a few just to get that pretty purple bursts. Refused for more when he bit just a tiny piece of fig. Hmmm. More for mommy then.  

More soon. 

Love, 

A

Fig Galette (Based on Smitten Kitchen's Blue and Red Berry Ricotta Galette)

Pastry

1 1/4 cups (160 grams) all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Zest of half a lemon

8 tablespoons (4 ounces or 113 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/4 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons cold water

Filling

11/2 cups fig cuts

Few blueberries

3 to 4 tablespoons granulated sugar (use the lower amount if your fruit is especially sweet)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Pinch of salt

Glaze

1 egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water

1 heaped teaspoon coarse sugar for sprinkling

Make dough: 

Whisk the flour, salt, sugar and zest together in the bottom of a large bowl. Work the butter into the flour with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles a coarse meal and the largest bits of butter are the size of tiny peas. Stir sour cream and 3 tablespoons water together in a small dish and pour into butter-flour mixture. Stir together with a flexible spatula as best as you can, then use your hands to knead the mixture into a rough, craggy ball. Wrap in plastic and flatten into a disc. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour or up to 48 hours, or you can quick-firm this in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Assemble galette: Heat oven to 200 C. On a floured counter, roll the dough out into a large round-ish shape, about 14 to 15 inches across. Download and print Deb's star shape template here. Cut the dough according to the template. Carefully stir together all of the filling ingredients and spread them in the center of the dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold each of the 5 corners into the center. Pinch the outer corners closed, to seal in the filling and the shape. Whisk egg yolk and water together and brush over exposed crust. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake galette: For 30 minutes, or golden all over. Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes, then slide the galette onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges and serve hot, warm or at room temperature. Serve it with ice cream.

Hot Chocolate Pudding

Have you ever had a sudden crave for chocolate and could not tolerate anything less than what you had in mind? I did. And this fixed it just the right way, at the right time. PMS... why do women have to suffer from it? 

Nigel Slater's Hot Chocolate Puddings (recipe taken from here, Simmer Seasonal Recipes. Thank you)

7 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
5 tbsp unsalted butter, diced
1/4 cup granulated sugar (Nigel Slater calls for 1/2 cup – add more if you like sweeter)
3 eggs, separated
2 heaping tbsp nutella, or another chocolate hazelnut paste

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and butter 4 6oz ramekins.

Place the chocolate and the butter in a metal bowl set over just simmering water (or use a double boiler if you have one.) Stirring occasionally, leave it to melt.

Meanwhile, combine the sugar and the egg yolks in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk until creamy, frothy, and pale yellow – this will take a minute or two. You can also use a handheld electric mixer to do this.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peak form.

Once the chocolate is melted, add the nutella and stir to incorporate. Remove from the heat and fold the chocolate mixture into the beaten egg yolks. Gently fold in the beaten whites – make sure there are no visible streaks of whites left.

Divide the mixture between the prepared ramekins and bake 12 to 15 minutes until risen. The tops should be cracked, but the centers still melty. Serve warm, topped with a little cocoa or powdered sugar. Leftovers are delicious cold with a small pour of cream.

Three-Coloured Shepherd's Pie

I have been on a 'diet' since last November and so far I have managed to shed few kilos. Though keeping it on track seems difficult sometimes. But the good thing is that, with all these dieting routine, it somehow has managed to change my eating style or should I say our eating style into a healthy one. I'm more selective nowadays in terms of the food I put in each mouth in this house, and I'm glad to say that we eat more vegetables and fruits in the last few months compared to last time. And I even read labels!

Anyway, I pulled this recipe from a quaint 'Little Paris Kitchen' book by Rachel Khoo which packed with Parisian recipes made easy, simple approach yet truly yay(!) results. I picked this particular one because I love how beautiful the pie looks from the book. The top part is made out of three different toppings, mashed pumpkin, mashed potato and parsley flavoured-mashed potato-which means colours! I love colours in my food.

Since I love how Marco did with his version of Shepherd pie, so I decided to combine these two recipes into one. Here's my version of Three-coloured Shepherd's Pie. 

Three-coloured Shepherd's Pie 

Ingredients

The beef filling, recipe based on Marco Pierre White's. 

1tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

500g minced lamb- I used beef

10g plain flour

1tbsp Worcestershire sauce- I subs it with oyster sauce.

1tbsp tomato puree- I subs it with cherry tomatoes-blend

200ml beef stock

300ml water (use more or less)

1 bay leaf

1 large carrot, peeled, chopped and boiled until just tender

The topping, recipe based on Rachel Khoo's.

500g pumpkin, peeled and cut into chunks

olive oil

500g floury potatoes- I used Russets

1/2 bunch of parsley

8 tbsp milk

1 tbsp butter

white pepper

salt

Thing you'll need:

A pie dish

Food bags

Way to do it

Pre-heat the oven to 200 deg C.

Beef filling (Here's is a demo)

Fry off the garlic and onions in the oil until translucent and add the meat and season. Stir in the tomato puree, bay leaf and seasoning and add the beef/vegetable stock then simmer for 30 minutes. 

Topping

Toss the pumpkin chunks into baking tray and drizzling with olive oil. Roast for 20 mins or until tender. I use forks to mashed it and it created "not-so-smooth paste". The book clearly ask for a blender, guess I've skipped that part. Spoon into a piping bag, I used ziplock bag, and put aside.

Cook the potato in large pot for 15-20 mins. with blender, whizz the parsley including the stalk with 3 tablespoon of olive oil until smooth. Once the potatoes are cooked, drain and mash with milk, and butter (I add a knob of cream cheese). Season with salt and white pepper. Split into two equal portions. Mix one portion with the parsley paste and spoon each of them into ziplock.

Assembly

Pour the hot meat sauce into an oven proof dish and top with carrots cuts, or any other preferred vegetables i.e peas and let it chill a little bit. 

Pipe lines of the different topping on to it. 

Bake for 30 minutes or until bubbling and golden.

Serve hot.

Claypot Chicken Rice with Mushroom & Salted Fish

At a first glance, this dish may seems like a lot of work. It isn't. The whole prep works and cooking took about 45 mins or less. A perfect, simple weeknight dinner perhaps. I found some tenggiri salted fish at the wet market today. I bought two, which I later regret. The towkay uncle told me that they are rather rare during this unpredictable weather. 'Banyak tak jadi'. And I bought two. Sobs. I only nodded to him as if I really understand him. He later told me that the best place to keep this fish is in your freezer. Yes, in your freezer. Not in your fridge, not under your kitchen sink, or inside your onion's basket. Guilty as charged. To me, the dish won't be the same without the salted fish. I personally think that the star of the dish belongs to the salted fish, rather than to the chicken or mushroom itself. (Claypot salted fish rice with chicken and mushroom?) The subtle fragrant (oh the smell)of the salted fish, camouflage in between the rice grains, bind the wholly things inside the bowl. Make sure you get these seasonally rare gems beforehand.

Claypot Chicken Rice with Mushroom & Salted Fish
(Loosely adapted from Noobcook & mycookinghut)

Ingredients:
1/2 fresh chicken
2-3 garlics
1 cup of rice
1 cup of chicken stock
A few stalk of scallions
A small piece of salted fish, chopped
A small knob of ginger-julienne
A small piece of ginger torch flower bud -chopped (optional)
A handful of dried shitake mushroom-soak in warm water, reserve the soaking water
cooking oil, as needed

Marinade:
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp of sweet soy sauce
1/2 tsp honey/brown sugar

Directions:
1. Marinade chicken pieces for 1 hour or so.
2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok and sautéed the garlic and ginger. Add in the mushroom and let it fragrant.  Stir-fry marinated chicken meat for 1 minute. Put aside.
3. Add the washed rice together with the salted fish into the pot.
4. Cook the rice with 1 cup of chicken stock+ some water used to soak the mushroom.
5. Cover claypot with lid. Simmer the rice until it is almost cooked, about 10 minutes.
6. Spread the chicken mixture all over the rice.
7. Cover the claypot and simmer for another 15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Spinach-Basil Pesto Penne

Pesto, as a rule, can be made from anything that consists of leafy greens, nuts, cheese, garlic, and olive oil. It is something I would  have on days when bolognese, carbonara even olio suddenly sound complicated or on days when I could not be bothered to cook at all. Of course, there are thousand of different ways to substitute the ingredients. It all depends on your creativity in the kitchen. The leafy green, nuts and cheese are the variables. However, if you are a first timer, sticking to a classic pesto ingredients is a must: basil, pine nuts, parmesan, salt, pepper, olive oil. 

All you need is a pestle and mortar.  Optionally, you may need a pan to toast the nuts. This is only if you want to preserve the oil from nuts, which gives you the creaminess rather than the nuttiness* taste. 

You can opt for a food processor, which by the way  does not make you a cheater. From what I have read, different techniques (chopping, bruising, crushing, etc) would produce different pesto-taste. Or if you are not in any particular rush, try chopping. It is said that it will single out each taste of every ingredient in the sauce. I'd love to try this method one of these days. Lastly, whichever method  you choose, please avoid using a blender. You do not want to end up with a smoothie. #ggs lol

Spinach-Basil Pesto Pasta

Adapted from Jamie Oliver's Pesto recipe*.

1 handful of basil

2 handfuls of spinach

1 handful of pine nuts-slightly toasted

1 garlic or more if you like it to be garlicky

Salt & Pepper

Lemon juice (optional)

1 handful of Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Extra virgin olive oil

*Start by slightly toast the nuts in the pans or oven.
Pound the garlic with a little pinch of salt and the basil leaves in a pestle and mortar.
Add the pine nuts to the mixture and pound again. Turn out into a bowl and add half the Parmesan. Stir gently and add olive oil – you need just enough to bind the sauce and get it to an oozy consistency.
Season to taste, then add most of the remaining cheese. Pour in some more oil and taste again. Keep adding a bit more cheese or oil until you are happy with the taste and consistency. You may like to add a squeeze of lemon juice at the end to give it a little twang, but it's not essential. 

Custard Chiffon Cake

Happy happy Friday peeps. I sincerely apologise for the silence. The whirlwind aftermaths of the general election had me hooked on all sorts of medias; FB, Twitter, TV, and so on. I'm no more near the election news now. The outcomes of the election, to me, showed how much the other half of the voters want that change to happen. No matter which party governs the country, let's just open up your eyes, mind and heart and make that change happen. The support will always be given to those who walk the talk. So walk the talk. Frankly, I'm a bit unpleased with some of the election outcomes, but life goes on. 

I went Malacca on Friday, and arrived home on Monday, the day after the general election. It was my first time travelling without both Adam & Husband. Nope, my second one. But that was several years ago. It felt different this time. A whole lot of different. The journey felt... weird without his voice asking me this and that. Without his big voice singing and zikir-ing. A very quiet journey I'd say. And to make it weirder, I managed to finish the whole book "An Old Palace in the Village" in few hours time. I rarely finish any book these days- But most of that time goes to Adam and I'm indeed lucky. ;)

Next, photos in this entry. Honestly, I am a bit unhappy with it. Well, you know how the weather behaves lately. Sunny in the morning, and in just a blink of an eye, it changes! I took the "prep" photo (before the baking happened) at 11 am in the morning, and the cake was ready to be shoot at 2pm, you know, this kind of cake needs some time to cool down. The prep photos look good to me. But by the time I wanted to shoot the cake, the weather had turned gloomy. I wanted to use the flash but the thought of setting it up stopped me. Plus, I have no idea where my husband keep it. And that brought me to the ISO, my last resort. Sigh. Darling husband, where did you keep that flash? 

Now, to the cake. The recipe is from "Monday Morning Cooking Club" cookbook. I first discovered this cake almost a year ago through my Facebook timeline. It directed me to this touching video of Merelyn, making her mom's recipe, Custard Chiffon Cake. I was totally moved by Merelyn's story, and the cake... it was lovely. It's JUST a simple yellow cake, with a nice custardy scent. I don't know what, but the simplicity of this cake kindda WOW-ed me. It ranked right on top in my favorite cake list, to date. It's a big cake for the three of us, but poof, it's gone easily in less than a day. We had it for tea and keep the half chunk of it for breakfast. My picky Adam had more than two big slices, and that is enough to show you guys how great this cake is. :)

The recipe, adapted from MMCC cookbook. 

175g self raising flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

35g (1/4 teaspoon) custard powder

6 large eggs, separated

345g (11/2 cup) caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

80ml (1/3 cup) extra light olive oil or vegetable oil

170ml (2/3 cup) warm water

1. Preheat oven to 180C. You will need an ungreased chiffon cake tin (not a non stick one as well). Do NOT grease it.

2. Sift the flour,1 teaspoon of cream of tartar and custard powder three times to ensure they are fully combined.

3. In an electric mixer, whisk egg yolks with 230g( 1 cup) of sugar until pale and creamy, then add the vanilla extract.Pour the oil and warm water into a jug. While the yolks are still whisking on low speed, add the flour mixture and the oil & water at the same time, whisking until just incorporated.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then add the remaining sugar & remaining cream of tartar and continue to whisk until the egg whites are stiff but not dry. Very carefully fold the batter into the egg whites with a metal spoon until just incorporated.

5.Pour mixture into the cake tin. Bake for 1hour or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into cake.- I baked it for 1 hour and 10 mins. (Note to self, reduce the oven temp to avoid the cracks)

6. After removing the cake from the oven, immediately invert it to cool by balancing the middle funnel onto a bottle neck. It is important for the cake to be inverted and suspended upside down until it is cool to stop it from collapsing.

P/s: The comment box is not working and I'm doing my best to fix it- FIXED! :)