Raisin Buns

 

Raisins are dried grapes. I love eating raisins as snacks due to their natural sweetness. They are also delicious, moist and rich in nutrients especially potassium which has many important functions. According to healthdirect.gov.au, potassium allows the nerves to respond to stimulation and muscles to contract including those in the heart. It reduces the effect of sodium (present in table salt) on blood pressure. It helps move nutrients into cells and wast products out of cells. Besides eating raisins raw, I also use them in cooking and baking.

Ingredients:

• 350 g bread flour
• 200 g warm milk
• 7 g yeast
• 40 g sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 40 g butter
• 180 g raisins

Method:

• Activate the yeast:
• Add warm milk to a bowl of a mixer.
• Add sugar to the bowl.
• Add yeast to the bowl.
• Stir and wait for 5-10 minutes for bubbles to be formed.


Once the yeast has been activated, add bread flour and salt to the bowl.

Knead till a ball is formed.

Add butter.

Continue to knead till window pane is achieved.

• Grease a clean bowl and transfer the dough to it.

• Cover the bowl with a cling wrap.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it to your counter top.

• Punch down the dough to Degas.

• Form the dough into a ball.

• Divide it into 12 pieces, rolling each piece into a small ball.

• Take 1 piece of dough ball, flatten it and roll it out into a long rectangle of about 7 cm wide.

• Spread 15 g of raisins on the dough, taking care to leave a gap (free of raisins) along the middle.

• Roll up the dough.

• Cut the rolled up dough into 2. Place each into a cake liner with the cut part down.

• Repeat till all the dough balls have been shaped.

• Cover the shaped dough and let them double in size.

• Pre-heat your oven to 175 deg C.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, egg wash them.

• Bake them for 20 minutes.

• Cool them down on a metal rack once done.

• Enjoy.

Poon Choi

Step 1 - Blanch the Napa cabbage

    

Step 2 - Blanch the Shiitake mushroom

Step 3 - Blanch the prawns

Step 4 - Blanch the carrots

   

Step 5 - Blanch the Enoki mushrooms and scallops

Step 6 - Cut and place the tofu and blanch the abalone and broccoli

Poon Choi is a traditional Hakka festival meal which consists of many ingredients layered in an interesting manner in a big pot, preferably a claypot.  It is usually prepared and served during Chinese New Year as the meal signifies abundance and prosperity. However, nowadays it is prepared and eaten at any time of the year. Ingredients to prepare Poon Choi differ from family to family. But the first layer of Poon Choi is usually the Napa cabbage. The other ingredients include prawns, fish slices, scallops, squids, abalone, sea cucumber, tofu, various types of mushroom and tofu. Carrots and broccoli add colour to make it more attractive. The quantity of the various ingredients below may be varied according to one's preference.

Ingredients:

• 8 leaves of Napa cabbage, cut into 3-inch length
• 5 big prawns (White prawns are preferable. However, I used tiger prawns at this particular time.)
• 5 pieces of big fresh scallops
• 5 pieces of abalone (braised ones as the sauce will be used in the soup of the Poon Choi). I have used those brined ones as I have ran out of the braised ones. However, I have kept the braised sauce from earlier cans that I have opened.
• 5 pieces of Shiitake mushroom (soaked overnight)
• 1 packet of Enoki mushroom
• 2 tubes of soft tofu (egg or plain)
• 5 slices of carrots
• 3 broccoli florets
• 4 pieces of shallots, sliced.

Method:

• Boil 2 litres of water in a pan.

• First, blanch the Napa cabbage. Layer them onto the base of the claypot once they have softened.

• Boil the Shiitake mushrooms till they are soft. Arrange them to the side of the claypot.

• Next, boil the prawns for about 8 minutes. Boiling them any longer would render them hard. Arrange them to another side of the claypot.

• Boil the carrots till they are soft. Arrange them in the centre on top of the Napa cabbage.

• Next, blanch the Enoki mushroom. Arrange them to another side of the claypot.

• Next, blanch the scallops and then arrange them to the side of the claypot.

• Cut and steam the soft tofu. Arrange them in the claypot.

• Blanch the broccoli and place them on top.

• Next, preparing the soup:

• Fry the shallots till they are fragrant.
• Remove the crispy shallots leaving the oil behind.
• Pour the water used to blanch or boil the ingredients to the oil.
• Add the sauce of the braised abalone.
• Let the soup boil.
• Season it with salt (if the soup is not salty enough) and pepper.

• Leave the soup in the pan till the Poon Choi is ready to be consumed. Re-heat when necessary and pour it into the claypot.

• The Poon Choi is ready to be served.

Sweet, Soft and Fluffy Pandan Sandwich Loaf

I have lots of pandan plants at home. So, what better way than to make use of them to bake my bread. They give a very aromatic smell and the colour of the green is so sweet that it was a joy eating them. I used many pandan leaves in this bread; in fact 30 leaves in all. Though the juice is dark green, after mixing it with milk, the colour turned pastel thereby giving the bread a pastel green.

Ingredients

• 500 g bread flour
• 100 g castor sugar or you may reduce the amount slightly. (You may use brown sugar.)
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 3 tbsp milk powder
• 2 tsp yeast
• 100 ml pandan juice (from juicing 30 pandan leaves with some water)
• 170 - 180 ml lukewarm milk
• 2 eggs at room temperature, 1 for the dough and the other for brushing the dough balls before baking.
• 50 g butter at room temperature

Method

• Makes 2 loaves; one 450 g and the other 700 g.

• Prepare the pans. Grease the pans (8 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch and 9 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch) and line my pan with parchment paper for easy removal of the baked loaves.)

• First of all, activate the yeast - add a bit of the sugar to some of the lukewarm milk, stir the milk to dissolve the sugar and then sprinkle the yeast onto it. Stir.

• Once bubbles have formed (after approximately 10 minutes), the yeast mixture is ready for you to start making the loaves. 

• Pour about 90% of the lukewarm milk into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add more of the milk if the dough is hard.

• Pour in the pandan juice.

• Pour the yeast mixture into the mixing bowl.

• Break the egg into the mixing bowl.

• Add the rest of the sugar.

• Add the salt.

• Pour in the flour.

• Add the milk powder.

• Start kneading until a dough ball is formed. Once that is achieved, add the butter.

• Continue to knead until the butter is incorporated into the dough.

• Continue to knead until the dough passes the window pane test.

• Oil a bowl.

• Transfer the dough into the oiled bowl, cover the bowl with a cling wrap and put a wet towel over the cling wrap. Let the dough proof until it is double in size.

• Slightly flour the table top. (I like to oil my table top.)

• Transfer the dough onto the table top. Punch down the dough.

• Roll the dough out into a long rectangular shape (horizontally).

• Cut the dough into 2 pieces, 1 of 450 g and the other 700 g.

• Shape them into balls.

• Take 1 dough ball. Press it down and spread out into a rectangle; the length according to the length of your pan.

• Roll up the dough and place it into your pan. Repeat the same with the other dough.

• Cover the pan with a cling wrap and let the doughs proof until double in size.

• Break an egg into a bowl and add a tablespoon of milk to it. Mix.

• Brush the doughs with the egg mixture just before baking.

• Bake the doughs in a pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 30 minutes.

• Remove the loaves from the pan immediately after baking and let them cool down on a wire rack.

Spicy Garlicky Lemongrass Chicken

We can find so many aromatic herbs in our markets and supermarkets - like the torch ginger flower (bunga kantan), lemongrass (serai), ginger leaves (daun hail) and so on. These can really make our dishes very fragrant and more appetising. I have been using a lot of lemongrass in my cooking and the resulting dishes were highly approved by my family. In fact my son told me to cook this Garlicky Lemongrass Chicken more often as it is so delicious. So I have been cooking this dish quite often. It is very easy to cook it. Most important is to marinate the chicken pieces well for at least 1/2 an hour in advance. But I usually marinate my meat 1 day in advance for a very tasty meat dish.

Ingredients:

• 400 g chicken meat (You may use any part of the meat - the breast or the thigh. You may use bone-in or deboned chicken.)
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce (or more for a more salty dish)
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 3 stalks of lemongrass
• 3-5 chili padi (depending on how spicy you want your dish to be.)
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 4 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

• Cut up chicken into cubes.

• Marinate the chicken cubes with pepper, light soy sauce and oyster sauce.

• Cut lemongrass into 1-inch length. Smash the lemongrass to emit more fragrance from it.

• Cut up the chili padi into small pieces.

• Chop the garlic.

• Heat up cooking oil in a kuali.

• Add the lemongrass and chili padi to the kuali and sauce them till fragrant.

• Add the chopped garlic and sauté till fragrant but not too brown.

• Add chicken cubes.

• Fry till they are cooked.

• Add the dark soy sauce to the kuali.

• Fry to mix the dark soy sauce with the other ingredients in the kuali.

• Dish up.

Raisin Loaf

My brother-in-law and his daughter went for a holiday in China and visited a vineyard where the grower had sun dried his grapes to form raisins. They gifted me with a packet of raisins resulting in me baking a raisin loaf for my breakfast. The loaf was soft and slightly sweet. The raisins were crunchy when I bit into them.  

Ingredients:

• 200 ml warm milk
• 200 ml warm water
• 50 g sugar
• 8 g yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 100 ml melted butter (I use salted butter. Add 1 tsp salt if you are using unsalted.)
• 700 g bread flour
• 100 g raisins

Instructions:

• Activate the yeast:

• Add warm milk to a bowl.
• Add warm water to the bowl
• Add sugar to the bowl.
• Add instant yeast to the bowl.
• Stir and wait for 5-10 minutes for bubbles to be formed.

• Once the yeast has been activated, add salt, egg, melted butter and bread flour to the bowl.

• Knead till window pane is achieved.

• Grease a clean bowl and transfer the dough to it. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer it to your counter top.

• Punch down the dough to degas.

• Form the dough into a ball.

• Roll out into a rectangular dough.

• Spread raisins evenly across the dough.

• Roll up the dough and divide into 3 parts of equal weight.

• Take each part and roll into a long roll.

• Braid the 3 long rolls.

• Place the braided dough into a 9 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch pan which has been greased and lined with parchment paper.

• Cover the pan and let the dough to  double in size.

• Meanwhile pre-heat your oven to 180 deg C.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, egg wash them.

• Bake them for 30 minutes. (Tent your pan with aluminium foil if your oven is too hot and the top of the loaf is turning dark too soon.)

• When baked, remove the loaf from the pan immediately and transfer it to a metal rack to let it cool down. Only then you may slice the loaf.

• Enjoy.

Green Onion Chinese Pancake

 

Green Onion Chinese Pancake is a savoury unleavened flatbread. It is flaky on the outside and soft on the inside. There are 2 ways to obtained the flaky layers - rolling and fold the dough (oiling each fold) to form many layers or rolling the dough, shaping it into circles and flattening it. I have used the second method to make the pancake. To make the dough, we only need flour, water, oil and salt. For the fillings, we need green onion, pepper, salt and a little bit of flour. This pancake is very versatile; it can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It can be eaten on its own or with curry. We can also freeze up the pancakes and take out the required pieces to be fried whenever we want to eat them. 

Ingredients:

• Dough:
• 500 g all-purpose flour
• 300 g warm water
• 25 g oil
• 10 g salt

• Fillings:
• 100 g green onion
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 25 g all-purpose flour
• 50 g heated oil

Method:

• Dough:

• Add all ingredients for making the dough into a mixing bowl.

• Knead till a smooth dough is formed.

• Rest the dough for 10 minutes.

• Divide the dough into the number of pieces you desire. (I divide it into 9 pieces.)

• Grease a container.

• Shape each piece into a ball and put it into the container.

• Brush each dough ball with oil to prevent them from sticking to each other.

• Rest the dough balls for 30 minutes so that it is easier to roll them out later.

• While the dough balls are resting, prepare the fillings.

• Fillings:

• Wash and chop up the green onions.

• Add the chopped green onions to a bowl.

• Add all-purpose flour, salt and pepper to the bowl.

• Mix up the ingredients.

• Pour heated oil over the ingredients. Stir to mix up the oil and other ingredients.
• Divide the fillings into 9 equal portions. (This will prevent a shortage or an excess in the end.)

• Assembly:

• Take a dough ball. Roll it out into a circle.

• Spread the fillings on it.

• Roll up the dough to form a long roll.

• Take the long roll and roll it up into a circle like in the 6th photo.

• Flatten it to form a round flat dough of about 7 inches.

• Heat up a pan.

• Transfer the prepared dough onto the pan (there is no need to grease the pan as the pancakes are oily) and fry till the dough is cooked on both sides.

• Note:

• If you do not wish to fry the pancakes immediately, you may freeze them up.

• Put the fresh/raw pancakes onto a non-stick parchment paper. Put another piece of parchment paper on top followed by another piece of pancake. Repeat till all the pancakes have been layered between each parchment paper.

• Keep the stack of pancakes in a zip lock bag and put the bag into the freezer.

• When you want to eat them, just take each piece out from the freezer and onto the frying pan without defrosting it.

Claypot Tofu with Tomatoes and Mushrooms

Sequence of Cooking:

I have seen this dish being cooked on Instagram and Facebook. Looking at the ingredients, I was sure that the dish would be appreciated by my husband and children. True enough, all of them love it. It is also suitable for vegetarians.

Although no measurement is given, the dish looks easy enough to cook. Since then I had cooked this dish a few times to try out with different quantities of the various ingredients. The recipe below is the result of these trials.

Ingredients:

• 400 g tomatoes, cubed
• 1 packet enoki mushroom (2 would have been better), remove ends
• 4 pcs of large brown button mushroom, sliced
• 1 box of tofu, cut into pcs
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup of water
• 1 tbsp black vinegar
• 1/2 tsp pepper powder
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• Cornflour slurry (2 tbsp cornflour + 4 tbsp water)
• Garnishing - green onion

Method:

• Add cooking oil to claypot. Let it heat up.

• Add tomatoes to the claypot. Fry.

• Add salt.

• Add water. Let boil.

• Add enoki mushroom to 1 side and button mushroom to the other. Add tofu either on top of the mushrooms or to one side next to the mushrooms.

• Beat egg and add it to the claypot.

• Add pepper, black vinegar and sesame oil. (Dont hv to stir.)

• Thicken the sauce with corn flour slurry and garnish the tofu with tomatoes and mushrooms with green onion.

• Serve hot with white rice.