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.