Butter Bread

Butter Bread, as the name suggests, has butter as its main ingredient. Butter gives the bread a rich flavour. We usually eat it on its own i.e. there is no requirement of a spread. Other ingredients include milk, sugar and egg. Depending on one's preference, butter bread can be shaped in a number of ways, the simplest being to just roll up the dough and place into a loaf pan to be baked. Or, the dough can be rolled up, sliced and the sliced dough arranged in a loaf pane or a round pan as described below.

Ingredients:

• 160 ml warm milk
• 40 g sugar
• 7 g yeast
• 50 ml melted butter
• 1 egg
• 400 g bread flour
• 5 g salt
• 40 ml melted butter (for brushing on dough)
• 1 egg yoke (for brushing on dough before baking)

Instructions:

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

• Once the yeast has been activated, add melted butter and egg white to the yeast mixture.

• Then add the bread flour and salt to it.

• Knead till window pane is achieved.

• Rest the dough till it doubles in size.

• Punch down the dough to de-gas.

• Flour your counter top.

• Transfer the dough onto it and shape it into a ball.

• Roll out the dough to a rectangle, 20 inches x 12 inches. (If you do not have a big counter space, you may divide the dough into 2.

• Spread melted butter onto it.

• Roll up the dough (from the longer side up).

• Now you would have a long roll.

• Slice the dough into the number of pieces you want.

• Place them in an overlapping manner into a round baking pan which is lined with greased parchment paper. (My pan is 8 inches in diameter.)

• Let it proof till double in size.

• Brush the dough with egg yoke.

• Bake the dough in a pre-heated oven at 175 deg C for 35 minutes.

• Remove the bread from the baking pan and let it cool on a metal rack.

Ikan Tenggiri (Mackerel) Masak Lemak

My family and I went to have lunch at a nyonya restaurant and one of the dishes we order was Ikan Tenggiri Masak Lemak. It was very delicious; the fish was very fresh and the sauce was creamy with a tinge of sweetness, saltiness and sourness. So, I decided to replicate it at home. The resulting dish was similar to that we ate at the restaurant. 

Ingredients:

a. 2 slices of ikan tenggiri

b. For blending

• 10 g chili padi
• 8 g dried chili
• 75 g shallots
• 25 g garlic
• 50 g lemongrass (white part only)
• 20 g fresh turmeric
• 20 g galangal
• 20 g ginger
• 25 g belacan, toasted
• 15 g candlenut
• 1 cup water

c. For cooking

• all of the blended ingredients
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 3 g assam keping
• 1 cup water
• 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised 
• 1 cups thick santan
• 2 pcs of kafir lime leaves
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 1 tsp sugar

Method:

• Blend all ingredients stated above under "For Blending".

• Heat up pan with cooking oil.

• Add all of the blended ingredients to the pan.

• Fry them till they are fragrant and oil splits from the ingredients.

• Add water, assam keping and lemongrass.

• Let the sauce simmer slowly for about 5 minutes.

• Add the santan and let it boil. (If sauce is too thick, add some water. It should not be too thin either.)

• Add kafir lime leaves.

• Season with salt and sugar.

• Add the tenggiri. (Do not overcook.)

• Serve with white rice.

Ondeh-Ondeh Jagung

I have made ondeh-ondeh purple sweet potato and ondeh-ondeh pandan before. I decided to look for other ingredients to be added to my ondeh-ondeh dough to make my cooking journey more interesting and to give my family more variety of taste. So, I came up with jagung or corn. I modified my ondeh-ondeh pandan recipe to make my ondeh-ondeh jagung. 

Ingredients:

• 200 g glutinous rice flour
• 50 g all-purpose flour
• 300 g creamed corn
• 150 g coconut flakes
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 3 pandan leaves, wash and knot them.

Method:

• Add salt to grated coconut and steam them for a few minutes.

• Open a can of creamy style corn and weigh out 300 g to be used in the recipe.

• Weigh and sieve the glutinous and all-purpose flours into a bowl.

• Add 90 percent of the creamed corn to the bowl of flours and knead till they are smooth. If the dough is too dry, add more of the creamed corn till you have a soft dough.

• Divide and weigh the dough into 23 g-piece. Roll the dough into balls. (You may weigh to make smaller or bigger dough balls. Note that the balls will enlarge once cooked.)

• Pound the cylindrical block of gula Melaka to break it up into smaller pieces.

• Take a dough ball. Flatten it and scoop 1/2 a teaspoon or more of gula Melaka onto it. Bring up the edges of the dough to seal it. Place it onto a floured plate.

• Repeat this till all the dough balls have been filled.

• Boil a pot of water. Add the knotted pandan leaves to it.

• Drop the dough balls into the boiling water.

• Once the dough balls float to the surface, it means that they are cooked. Let them roll in the boiling water for about 5 minutes more to ensure that the gula Melaka is melted.

• Remove the cooked balls onto the plate of grated coconut. Roll them in the grated coconuts. (I managed to get 24 pieces of ondeh-ondeh from my recipe.)

• Plate them and serve.

 

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.