Whole Wheat Flaxseed Bread

 

     

According to Medical News Today, flaxseed is a plant-based food that provides healthful fat, antioxidants, and fiber. Some people call it a “functional food,” which means that a person can eat it to boost their health. Some of the health benefits include reducing risk of cancer, improving cholesterol and heart health, easing symptoms of arthritis, reducing hot flashes, improving blood sugar, preventing constipation and others. My husband likes to add flaxseed to his overnight oats. However, I experimented with it by adding it to my bread. The bread turned out to be very soft without any strong taste of the flaxseed.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup brown flaxseed meal
• 1 1/2 cup bread flour
• 2 tsp yeast
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup warm milk
• 1/2 tsp salt

Method:

• Grease and line a loaf pan 8 inch x 4 inch x 4 inch. Set aside.

• Put the flours, flaxseed meal, sugar, salt and yeast into the mixer.

• Pour the warm milk and break the egg into the mixer.

• Add the oil into the mixing bowl. (Sometimes I use melted butter instead of oil.)

• Knead the ingredients into a smooth dough. This will take about 20 minutes or slightly more.

• Grease a bowl with oil.

• Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and put it into the greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap.

• Leave the dough to proof until it double in size.

• Once it has doubled in size, remove the dough from the bowl onto a slightly floured table-top.

• Punch down the dough to remove the gas trapped inside.

• Then roll it into a rectangle and roll it up to fit the loaf pan.

• Cover the loaf pan with a wet towel.

• Let the dough double in size.

• Pre-heat oven to 175 degree Celsius.

• Once the dough has doubled in size, sprinkle the top of the dough with flaxseed.

• Bake it in the oven for about 35 - 40 minutes.

• Remove the pan from the oven.

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

• Slice the loaf once it has completely cool down.

Hup To Soh

Hup To Soh is a very delicious biscuit. It was a very popular biscuit in my younger days. We always buy it from shops specialised in selling biscuits. Some were very crunchy while others melted in the mouth. Nowadays we can seldom find it. So we have to make it ourselves to enjoy it. It is very easy to make this biscuit. We just need flour, sugar, sesame seeds walnut, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, peanut oil and eggs to make it. However, those sold in the shop do not contain walnuts and sesame seeds.

Ingredients:

• 300 g all-purpose flour
• 50 g toasted sesame seeds
• 100 g toasted walnut and crushed
• 75 g sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 egg yolks
• 50 g butter, softened
• 125 g peanut oil
• 1 egg (for egg wash)

Method:

• Add flour, sesame seeds, walnut, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda to a mixing bowl. Stir to mix them up.

• Beat egg yolks and add to the flour mixture. Stir to mix them up.

• Add butter to the bowl. Stir to incorporate the butter into the flour mixture.

• Add peanut oil to the bowl. Stir.

• Mix up all the ingredients till you achieve a smooth dough.

• Line your baking tray with parchment paper.

• Take a dollop of the dough.

• Weigh it to get 25 g. (You can make it either smaller or bigger. Those sold in the shops are much bigger.)

• Roll it into a ball.

• Place the dough ball onto the baking tray.

• Press dough ball down to flatten it and to have some nice cracks along the sides.

• Repeat till all the dough has been used up. I manage to get 30 pieces out of the above ingredients.

• Immediately heat up your oven to 170 deg C for 10 minutes.

• Egg wash your flattened dough.

• Bake them in the oven for 30 minutes to get a nice golden colour for your biscuits. Shorten your baking time if you would like a lighter colour.

• Wait for your biscuits to completely cool down before you store them in a bottle.

Bitter Gourd Bihun with Fish Fillet

 

 

I experimented with this new dish - Bitter Gourd Bihun with Fish Fillet - which was described to me by my better half. He had seen it on Tik Tok. The final result met his approval. If you like bitter gourd, then this dish is for you. I ate it and it was really delicious. I will definitely be cooking it again and again.

Ingredients:

• 100 g bihun (before soaking)
• 6-inch long bitter gourd
• 2-inch long carrot
• 1 small onion
• 1 egg
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp white pepper powder
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• Cooking oil
• 1/2 cup water

Method:

• Soak bihun till it is soft.

• Half the bitter gourd lengthwise, remove the seeds and slice thinly across.

• Julienne the carrot.

• Slice the onions in rings.

• Slice the fish fillet into small pieces. Fish - either garoupa, red snapper or white snapper.

• Heat up kuali with some oil.

• Fry the egg, break it up, dish up and set aside.

• Add some oil and saute the garlic till fragrant.

• Add the carrot, onion and bitter gourd.

• Fry till they have softened.

• Add the fish and fry till they are half-cooked.

• Add water.

• Then add the seasonings.

• Once the sauce has boiled, add the bihun.

• Fry till the bihun is cooked.

• Add the fried egg to the bihun. Stir.

• Dish up and sprinkle some coriander on top. (Can use spring onion too.)

Braised Chicken with Capsicum Sprinkled with Sesame Seeds

When we run out of ideas on what to cook, just see what meats, seafood and vegetables are in the refrigerator and try to mix and match them to create a new dish. Or, just surf the World Wide Web to look for ideas. We need not copy ingredient for ingredient nor method for method when we do that as cooking is an art. We can add our ideas to whatever recipes that we have seen and create another new dish. For this dish - Braised Chicken with Capsicum Sprinkled with Sesame Seeds, I have seen a video (just the method without the weight of ingredients) on the World Wide Web. I have just estimated the ingredients and went ahead with cooking it.

Ingredients:

• 300 g chicken meat
• 1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6-8 g white sesame seeds
• 100 g capsicum, various colours
• 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/4 cup water

Method:

• Wash and cut the chicken into bite sizes.

• Marinate them with dark and light soy sauces, pepper, salt and sesame oil for at least an hour.

• Toast the white sesame seeds till golden brown and fragrant. Set aside.

• Wash and cut the capsicum into little squares.

• Heat up wok or pan with sesame oil.

• Saute the garlic till fragrant.

• Add the marinated chicken and fry them.

• Add some water to braise the chicken till they are cooked.

• Add the capsicum and give them a quick stir (as I like to maintain their crunchiness).

• Scoop them onto a serving plate.

• Sprinkle the sesame seeds onto the chicken.

• Serve

Kuih Tepung Bungkus

 

Kuih tepung bungkus is my all-time favourite traditional kuih. It is good for breakfast or tea time.  It is not easy to find them in the area where I am staying. Thus, I have to make them myself. There are many processes involved in making them - from preparing the banana leaves, the fillings, the batter to finally, steaming the. But the delicious kuih makes the whole process worth it.

Ingredients:

• 12-15 pcs banana leaves 
• Batter:
• 400 g water
• 500 g coconut milk
• 250 g rice flour
• 10 g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• Fillings:
• 150 g fresh coconut flakes
• 100 g gula Melaka
• 50 g dark brown
• 2 - 3 pandan leaves
• 80 g water
• 10 g corn flour + 2 tbsp water to form a solution

Method:

• Preparing the banana leaves:

• Cut the banana leaves into 6 inches x 10 inches size.
• Wash them.
• Run each piece over the fire to soften them or you may blanch them in hot water
  
  

• For the fillings:

• Add the gula Melaka, dark brown sugar, pandan leaves and water into a saucepan.
• Boil the water till the gula Melaka and dark brown sugar melt and the syrup is aromatic.
• Sieve the syrup into a non-stick pan.
• Let it cool down a bit before adding the corn flour solution to it. Stir so that they are mixed together.
• Add the fresh coconut flakes to the syrup.
• Stir the coconut flakes till they absorb the syrup and slowly cook them till they are dry and can be formed into balls.
• Let the coconut flakes cool down.
• Then form them into balls or cylinders, depending on how you want to shape your kuih; some shape it into cone while others shape it into a long rectangle. (Each may weigh 16 - 20 g.)

• For the batter:

• Add water, coconut milk, rice flour, all-purpose flour and salt to a sauce pan. Stir till all are well combined.
• Turn on the fire and keep on stirring the mixture till it thickens and of dropping consistency.

• Assembly:

• Take one piece of banana leaf and place it on a weighing scale.
• Spoon some of the batter onto the leaf.
• Place a piece of coconut ball or cylinder on the batter.
• Cover it with some batter. (The total weight of my batter and coconut flakes is 100 g.)
• Fold the banana leaf from bottom to cover the batter and from the top to cover it. Fold the ends under the body.

• Prepare the steamer:
• When the water in the steamer is boiling, transfer the uncooked kuih to the steamer.
• Steam them for about 15 minutes. (Remember the battar and coconut flakes are already cooked.
• Remove the kuih from the steamer once they are done.

• Serve.

Potato Fritters

 

Fritters are ingredients like vegetables, fruits, seafood and meats which have been battered and deep fried. There are 2 types of fritters - sweet and savoury. The sweet ones are mostly made with fruits and the savoury ones with vegetables, seafood and meats. Banana fritters, corn fritters, cempedak fritters and sweet potato fritters are some of the sweet fritters that we eat for breakfast and tea breaks. Vegetable fritters are savoury and good as snacks. Prawn fritters and minced pork fritters are also savoury ones and usually eaten during lunch or dinner.

While a bit of salt added into the batter for sweet fritters will enhance their tastes, ingredients like paprika, coriander, parsley, onions, chilies and seasonings of salt, pepper and light soya sauce make the savoury fritters delicious and us wanting for more. 

Ingredients:

• 3 medium sized potatoes
• 2 tbsp flour
• 3 tbsp rice flour
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp chili flakes
• 1 tsp chili padi, chopped
• 1 big stalk coriander, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 pepper
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup water
• cooking oil

Method:

• Peel and grate the potatoes. You may wash the grated potatoes to remove some of the starch. However, I did not wash them.

• Add flour, rice flour, egg, chili flakes, chili padi, coriander, salt, pepper, light soy sauce and water to a mixing bowl.

• Mix these ingredients well.

• Add the grated potatoes to the bowl and mix them up with the ingredients in the bowl.

• If the batter is too thick, add more water, spoon by spoon. The batter should not be watery.

• Heat up a wok or pan with cooking oil.

• Once the oil is hot, scoop the batter into the wok or pan.

• Fry them till they are golden brown on one side.

• Flip the fritter to the other side to be fried till golden brown.

• Once done, ladle them onto a plate lined with kitchen towel to absorb additional oil from the fritter.

• Serve while they are hot.

Pineapple Jam (For Spreading)

 

There are so many types of jam in the market, some with natural sweetness from the fruits used in making the jam while others with added sugar. I usually make my own jam as it is easy to do and I do not put any sugar into it. Pineapple jam is one of my favourite jam & I make it often for our consumption. As I do not add sugar into my jam, I will usually try to buy pineapples which are ripe to ensure they are sweet.

Ingredients:

• 725 g pineapple flesh
• 40 g lemon juice
• 20 g sugar (optional)

Method:

• Add the pineapple flesh, 1 third at a time, into a blender.

• Blend the flesh till they are fine..

• Transfer the pineapple p)uree to a sieve with a bowl beneath it.

• Let some of the pineapple juice runs off into the bowl. (I was left with 560 g puree and 165 g juice.)

• Pour the puree into a non-stick pan or pot.

• Add sugar (optional) and lemon juice to the pan or pot.

• Turn on the stove to medium heat.

• Keep on stirring the puree till it is of spreadable consistency. (I was left with 285 g of pineapple jam.)

• Let the jam cool down completely before storing it in a clean and dry glass bottle.

• Refrigerate the jam immediately. (It can last about 10 days in the refrigerator.)